Ohio State alumni co-direct a film featuring couple with autism

Denise Cameron
Wed, 18 Nov 2020 00:01:31 +0000
Arts & Life, Entertainment, Events, Instagram Page, Movies, News, alumni, Audrey Todd, autism, autistic spectrum, Disabilities, film festival, matt swift, Megan Fitze, movie, Nicolette swift, ohio state, ohio state alumni, ohio state university, osu, reel abilities, reel abilities film festival

Those Who Spring of Me is an independent feature film about a couple with autism premiering virtually on Nov. 18. Credit: Courtesy of Nicolettecinemagraphics

The work of a pair of Ohio State alumni will now be featured on the virtual big screen.

“Those Who Spring of Me” — a film about a couple on the autism spectrum — will be shown virtually Wednesday. The film was written by local psychologist Dr. Audrey Todd and directed by married couple and Ohio State alumni Matt and Nicolette Swift as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival in Columbus.?

The festival originated at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, New York, and features films by and about people with disabilities, according to the festival’s website. The festival was established in Columbus by Arts Possible Ohio, a state agency for arts and disabilities, Megan Fitze, the agency’s director of programs, said.

Todd wrote the film as a look at what might come to be for her son, who falls on the spectrum of nonverbal autism, when he’s older, Matt Swift said. The Swifts were brought on board to co-direct the film in 2015.

The film centers around two characters — Will and Tatum — who are a couple and both on the autism spectrum, Matt Swift said. In the film, they approach Will’s parents to ask if they can get married and have a baby, Matt Swift said.?

“I hope they (the audience) enjoy a new film about a young couple in love, and I also hope they recognize that individuals with autism have the same hopes and dreams to love and build lives together, just as we all do,” Fitze said.?

“Those Who Spring of Me” was shot in the summers of 2017-19. The crew faced many challenges, the biggest being budget, Matt Swift said. He said the film’s budget was $14,000, and a lot of it went straight to paying for labor and actors.

“What we needed to do as filmmakers is find out, ‘Okay, we have this story we need to tell, what kind of scene — do we need to create [a] palette?’” Matt Swift said. “And in those scenes what accommodations might need to be made so that the non-professional actors, who might have accessibility needs because of having autism, what would (they) need to be (have) done so that they could actually portray the role that they needed to so that we would have a film to show everyone?” Matt Swift said.

Matt Swift said for a short film the budget was pretty small, as most short films can cost between $200,000 to $1 million. For this film, he said the crew had to buy consumer-grade equipment at Best Buy for accessibility needs.?

Matt Swift said the film was shot by three people — him, his wife and Danny Bean, an Ohio State alumnus who graduated from the film studies program. The three of them ran cameras, lights and sound by themselves to limit the number of people present and make sure the actors were comfortable.?

“If you want to have true representation of people with disabilities on the screen, then production crews have to start from a place of accessibility first,” Matt Swift said.?

Matt Swift said he suffered major injuries in a car accident during filming, halting production for eight months. Despite the setbacks, the crew was able to come together and get the film done.?

“We shot a lot of it in [Todd’s] home, with her son who has a care assistant, and everything as well. All these people have autism lives which means they have activities they do, they have trainings, they have classes, so the film couldn’t really stop that,” Matt Swift said.?

Fitze said the nationwide film festival is meant to feature and normalize people with disabilities in the film industry.?

“Whether that means they’re actors, writers, producers, whether it’s a narrative story just featuring people with disabilities or it’s a documentary about people with disabilities. It’s really cool to just normalize what we see in our films,” Fitze said.?

“Those Who Spring of Me” will stream virtually Wednesday at 6 p.m., followed by a talkback with Matt and Nicolette Swift. The film is free to view and a link will be sent after registration, which can be found on the film’s Eventbrite.