The Reason I Jump

Director Jerry Rothwell adapts the heart of Naoki Higashida's nonfiction book of the same name about living as a "non-speaking" person within the autistic spectrum disorder. The book's structure serves as a jumping-off point of this documentary that follows the lives of children born with the same condition as the author: an artistic Indian girl named Amrit, a British teenager named Joss, American best friends Ben and Emma, and Jestina from Sierra Leone. The film shows their respective lives amidst daily struggles and personal victories.