Citizen Autistic (2014/Cinema Libre DVD)

Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Documentary: B-

We've heard so much about Autism over the years that we think we know everything, even with some great programs already issued and more and more talk of the causes. More surfaced as we were posting this coverage, but there is more and William Davenport's Citizen Autistic (2014) picks up where all the other movies, TV specials and documentaries begin. To show what is really going and what we do not know, we open with a vigil to those senselessly killed because they suffer the condition. One immediately asks, why have we not heard about this?

The list is extensive, but that is only the beginning. Just as disturbing is, funded by several states via taxpayer money, a place known as Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts is torturing people who stay there with electric shock devices. Yes, the kind that was rightly outlawed and rejected in everything from mental health to criminal prison settings, and even in scientific experiments. Pressing buttons to get rid of behavior they do not want is as barbaric, offensive and outrageous as ever, though we also know some people are making money from this and others like the idea of pain, torture and fear as a new norm in society.

The only way these nightmares continue is to marginalize, ignore and even trash people suffering the condition, stop them from organizing and pushing them aside with stereotypes. With real help, including the kind children with the condition have received when the parents had the resources and cared to help, have led to these persons, these individuals leading fine lives to the point you would not know they had any condition as if it were anyone's business to begin with.

As a result, the program optimistically argues for more of that kind of independence, that people do not have to be locked away, that good intentions and trust are being exploited and squanders (including by the organization Autism Speaks, who in the long term (the sooner the better) ought to be investigated for making a ton of money off of the situation without doing much to really help it) gaining from keeping people ill for their own big money purposes.

Though this runs only 68 minutes, it is a very rich program that has plenty to say and is as important as any release we have covered on the subject to date. We also see that if autism's rise had happened prior to the 1980s, many people (including family and friends of those dealing with it) probably would not have suffered as they have and still are. Some would prefer not to deal with it for financial (lies about government budgets) and political (hate anyone being happy or having rights as they get a kick out of keeping people down) reasons, but Citizen Autistic brings it all together on the subject, building on the triumph and often severe limits of what has come before, setting a new high bar that we need to rethink the situation so people who deal with the condition are seen as people like the rest of us, get help and can live the free, as happy as possible lives everyone is entitled to live. This is a must-see work I'll be talking about for a long time to come.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a mix of all kinds of video, so that makes it a little rougher than usual, but some of the most disturbing and key footage is harder to watch for content than it ever could be for clarity. The image rating in this case is more relative than usual and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is more consistent (remarkably) showing the makers went out of their way to offer the most professional presentation possible under the circumstances.

An Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.

- Nicholas Sheffo