The Stimming Pool

Thursday, February 5, 7–9pm
Doors open, 6:30pm; Post-screening discussion, 8:30pm

CAMH Auditorium, McCain Complex Care & Recovery Building Entrance,
1025 Queen Street West, 2nd floor

Co-presented by the Blackwood Gallery and Vtape

is an experimental—at times fantastical—hybrid film that presents the possibilities of a world informed by autistic perspectives and perception.

A B-Movie film club host introduces a lost animated horror movie; a young woman fills out questionnaires and watches sequences in an eye tracking test; an office worker goes about their life, masking their autistic nature; a picture book tells the story of an enigmatic dog-human spirit watching over people with disabilities.

Co-created by the Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown-Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker) and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, The Stimming Pool is an experimental and sometimes magical hybrid film whose drifting form is built around the concept of an autistic camera. The curiosity of this camera discovers a relay of subjects who stray through the world, revealing environments often hostile to autistic experience - such as a hectic workplace and a crowded pub - and quiet spaces that offer respite from them. Sometimes the camera wanders off without any guide, finding an ancient woodland, an abandoned testing centre, even a fragment from an animated zombie film set in the American civil war…

Like a Russian doll of Where’s Wally? scenes, the film invites the audience to take pleasure in exploring details in every part of the frame. Each of the characters exists in a separate world nested inside one other and often jumping up and down levels. But gradually we come to realise they have common experiences. Some are concealing their autism and dealing with the resulting feelings of isolation, while others thrive in the communities and support structures around them. All, however, have a shared objective: to find a place where they are free to move and stim, uninhibited by the tests and restrictions of normative society. This secret place is the Stimming Pool…

Accessibility

The Arrell Family Foundation Auditorium is located inside the CAMH McCain Centre for Complex Care and Recovery (1025 Queen Street West, Toronto). CAMH is shared space for all; the facilities are used by staff, service providers, service users, and the general public. The auditorium is located on the second floor and is accessible via stairs and multiple elevators from the main lobby entrance. There are all-gender and accessible washrooms located adjacent to the entrance to the auditorium. The space is fully wheelchair accessible. A sensory-friendly zone is located next to the theatre on the second floor. Water is permitted inside the theatre, however, no food or drink is allowed. Coat check available for free.

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Host or Publisher Blackwood Gallery