'I just kind of want to show people as they are': Autistic Regina filmmaker launches doc series

Autism Awareness Day 2018 was a tipping point for Maxwell Adamson.

"I was just thinking that this is all great but all led by people who aren't autistic," Adamson said.

It inspired him to launch his documentary series Full Spectrum, an idea that had been in his mind for years.

"I wanted to do some sort of project to kind of mix the two worlds in my life: both film and the arts and the autism side," he said.

Adamson had graduated with a film school diploma around a month before. He said he wants to bring out autistic voices.

He said most of the representations od autism in popular media are, "straight white males that are very on the verbal and high-functioning end of the spectrum."

"They're the ones that can often advocate for themselves," Adamson said. "That's kinda why I feel the need to do this because I'm one of those people that can advocate for themselves and therefore have dictated what the stereotype is."

Moving away from 'inspiration porn'

Adamson said he wanted to change how he sees autistic people being interviewed.

"A lot of the time, when people are telling the autistic story for us, they'll see it's a disability and think that it's a way to make a really uplifting or inspiring piece," he said.

He describes it as "inspiration porn."

"They basically interview autistic people just to go, 'Look, these people can function day-to-day. That's so inspirational,' " Adamson said

"I just kind of want to show people as they are."

Adamson plans on releasing an episode on YouTube the first Tuesday of each month, with the final episode going out on Autism Awareness Day 2019.

The first episode features a woman named Tori.

"The interview with her was very focused on showing the bright side of her personality and how much she can bring joy to others," Adamson said. "Somebody on the spectrum who is, I want to say, stereotypically rigid and humourless is a big stereotype a lot of people on the spectrum face and Tori is anything but that."

The next episode is about an autistic parent who recently found out their child is autistic as well.

"I'm not too sure what the future holds of personalities we're going to show, but I'm always looking for people," Adamson said.

Arts and film to help process the world

Adamson's interest in the arts began at a young age when he started doing theatre to help him process his world.

"On top of the social issues of autism, I also have a lot of sensory issues and I always found that the arts world helped ground me," he said.

After high school, he went into the film industry because he believed it would be a career for him. He said he is a visual thinker, and views film as the most complex form of communication. Adamson received his Motion Picture Arts Diploma from the Recording Arts Institute of Saskatoon.

"As somebody that was told they have a disability that hindered their communication, I liked the idea of going into the most complex form of communication I could to kind of prove the world wrong," he said.

Watch the first episode below: