Film
Autism Every Day
- Slow-burning
A 2006 documentary centring the voices of mothers raising severely autistic children. Intimate, unvarnished, and focused on the daily realities these families navigate. For anyone seeking to understand autism from a caregiver's perspective, or anyone parenting a child with significant support needs.
If you liked this
Camille Claudel 19152013
A woman isolated in an institution, estranged from her art and her family. The film sits quietly with her inner life. Doesn't explain or pathologize, just watches her think and feel and rage.
But It's austere and slow. There's no narrative arc or revelation. Some will find it frustrating rather than moving.
The Reason I Jump2020
Adapted from Naoki Higashida's memoir, narrated by the autistic teenager himself. Luminous animation pairs with genuine autistic insight about internal experience, stimming, and how the world looks from inside.
But It's deliberately poetic and impressionistic. If you want direct medical or educational information, this isn't it.
Keep the Lights On2012
A man tending to his partner through addiction and crisis. Suffused with love and exhaustion. The texture of cagiving—the small moments, the dread, the refusal to abandon—feels completely true.
But It's about addiction and its consequences, not disability per se. Also genuinely difficult and unresolved in ways some viewers will find depressing.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Autism Every Day
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Loving2016
Both centre on the lived experience of families deemed deficient by institutions and society. Both refuse to sensationalize or demand emotional labour from those already exhausted.
A quiet film about Richard and Mildred Loving and the legal fight for their right to exist as a married couple. Grief and tenderness and ordinary courage. Speaks to the violence of being visible while unwanted.
But Some won't connect the parallel; it's not about disability. The film is glacially paced and offers no speeches or grand moments.
More like this (5)
Tickled2016
A documentary that starts with one mystery and spirals into something stranger and more unsettling than expected. Compulsively watchable. Asks hard questions about obsession, complicity, and what people will do.
But The subject matter becomes genuinely disturbing. It's not about autism, so tonally it's a departure—but it earns its darkness.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution2020
A history of disabled youth organizing and activism, grounded in memory and joy. It's radical and funny and rooted in real disabled leadership. Expands how you think about disability and power.
But It's focused on disabled people as political agents, not on parenting or medical burden. Some may feel it avoids the harder caregiver questions.
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present2012
An artist in her most vulnerable hours, preparing for her largest retrospective. Observational, intimate, generous toward her struggle. Shows what it means to stake everything on your work.
But It's really about obsession and ego. If you're not drawn to Abramović or contemporary art, the specificity may not grab you.
Hoop Dreams1994
Two basketball players followed over five years as their lives unfold in ways neither they nor we predict. Masterful filmmaking and genuine stakes. About aspiration, pressure, race, and family hope.
But It's long and its payoffs are complex rather than triumphant. Some will experience it as depressing rather than illuminating.
Senna2010
Uses archive to explore someone whose mind and body work differently than expected. Asks what society owes to brilliant, difficult people and what it asks of their families. Both centre unblinking attention on the actual logistics of care.
An archive documentary about a racing driver's obsession, ambition, and the costs of both. Visually stunning, narratively propulsive. Shows a life consumed by a single need and what that does to everyone touching it.
But It's primarily about motorsport and ego, not disability or family. Very different register—dramatic and fast rather than intimate and held.
People
Directing
- Lauren ThierryDirector
Production
- Eric SolomonProducer
- Lauren ThierryProducer