Area filmmakers spotlight those with autism
When central Ohio filmmaker Matt Swift was in his early 20s, he learned something about the world of the disabled.
Swift was a student at Ohio State University at the time, and while working at a campus-area pizza restaurant, he experienced repetitive strain injuries that affected both arms permanently.
“It eventually got to the point where I had to do a lot of therapy,” said Swift, now 42. “I registered with Disability Services at OSU to be able to finish my undergrad.”
Due to the physical limitations that resulted from the injuries, Swift was forced to abandon his dream of working on film crews in Hollywood, but the episode instilled a long-term interest in the experiences of the disabled.
Swift, who has served on the selection committee of the disabilities-focused film festival Reelabilities Columbus, spent four years co-directing a new feature-length film centered on characters on the autism spectrum, “Those Who Spring of Me.”
Co-directed with his wife, fellow filmmaker Nicolette Swift, the 117-minute movie revolves around Will (P.J. Gilmore), a 30-something on the spectrum who communicates nonverbally. The plot is set into motion when Will and his autistic girlfriend, Tatum (Kelsea Cherry), resolve to have a child together.
The film — which will have its world premiere Wednesday as part of this year’s all-virtual version of Reelabilities — is particularly authentic in its casting: In real life, both Gilmore, a former Westerville resident now living in Pomeroy, and Cherry, of Dublin, are on the autism spectrum.
“As far as we know, this is the first film of its kind to use actors on the spectrum to play a nonverbal character in a
scripted film,” Swift said.
The screenplay was written by Columbus clinical psychologist Audrey Todd, whose teenage son, Liam, is autistic.
“The whole film is kind of a foreshadowing of what (Audrey Todd’s) life might be like in 10 years when, if her son meets somebody,” said Swift, who met Todd through mutual friends in the central Ohio filmmaking scene.
“She was trying to find someone to film it,” said Nicolette Swift, 40, who lives with her husband in North Linden.
Todd knew Gilmore from the employment organization she founded for those with autism, Food for Good Thought, and Cherry from an area school that her son also attended. Although neither had acted before, Todd developed the project with the two in mind for the lead roles. The casting made the project enticing for the
Swifts.
“It also made us think outside the box for everything, like how to accommodate someone who can’t have lighting or is a little uncomfortable with you trying to put a mic on them,” Nicolette Swift said of working with Gilmore and Cherry, who both are in their 20s.
“Those Who Spring of Me” began production in September 2016 and continued in fits and starts until this past fall. To accommodate the needs of the main actors, shooting took place for about 21⁄ hours at a time every few
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Sundays. Four prosumer-style cameras were used to record simultaneously to lessen the need for retakes.
A budget of $14,000 for the film was raised primarily through grants. Todd and her husband, Scott Bogner, who
appear on-screen as the parents of Will, donated their house in Glen Echo for use as a key location.
Although Gilmore tended to be introverted and Cherry extroverted, when the two shared a scene, magic often happened, Nicolette Swift said. Both actors were permitted to ad-lib on occasion.
“They meshed really well,” she said. “When she would be a little too overthe-top, it would just take him guiding her. He was so mellow he would just bring her down.”
By the same token, said Matt Swift, who hopes to bring the film to other festivals, if Gilmore was reluctant to break out of his shell, Cherry “had the ability to bring him up.”
He added: “We created a relationship over four years with these two people to where they trusted us. They knew that we were trying to do the best we could to help them do what they needed to do.”
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