How The Stimming Pool creates space for an autistic cinema

What does an autistic film look like? The Wellcome Trust-funded project Autism Through Cinema at Queen Mary, University of London aimed to answer that question, spawning a number of art pieces, essays, a podcast and a feature film. This film, The Stimming Pool, is the work of Sam Chown-Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker and Steven Eastwood, billed together as the Neurocultures Collective. The film is paired with a multiscreen gallery installation, Stim Cinema, which breaks further out of the restrictions of typical filmmaking and viewing.

The film is having its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, while the installation is available through the LFF Expanded strand at Bargehouse. Ready to discuss the more nuanced aspects of the project, I caught up with Steven Eastwood and Georgia Bradburn at BFI Southbank to get into the actual process of making a film which defies neurotypical conventions….