VOZES DO ESPECTRO: DOCUMENTÁRIO SOBRE IDENTIFICAÇÃO E SATISFAÇÃO DE AUTISTAS COM A REPRESENTAÇÃO DO AUTISMO NA SÉRIE ATYPICAL

Abstract

This research intended to verify, through an audiovisual recording, how a group of autistic people perceives the depiction of autism in the Netflix streaming television series Atypical. This verification was made through the production of a documentary film, reuniting the accounts told by the participants, focusing on the feelings of identification and satisfaction with the depiction of autism in the series. The genre “documentary” was selected considering our intention of reinforcing the role of this genre of film as a tool of social mobilization. The series Atypical was selected based on the fact that, despite its average positive rating of 66% to 87% for the first three seasons, from specialized critics and the main public, based on data from review aggregators, there were still remarks, from people in the spectrum, pointing the imprecise and, in some cases, stereotypical representation of autism. Our methodology consisted of documentary research, literature review, pre-production, production, and post-production of the documentary. The documentary allowed a deeper look at the main aspects of the autistic representation in the series that evoked identification in the interviewed group. Those aspects were: autistics meltdowns experienced by the protagonist; misunderstanding of words, idioms, ironies, sarcasm, and jokes; stims; struggles to socialize/build friendships, with the additional issue of masking; preference for subjects within their zone of interest; auditory and visual hypersensitivity; expectation that something will go wrong; ritualized patterns of behavior; and being the victim of bullying in school. On the overall satisfaction with the representation of autism in the series, the final results were heterogeneous. This heterogeneity, previously anticipated due to the qualitative nature of this work, allowed room for positive reviews alongside other remarks on stereotypes, exaggerations, dramatizations, and the need for a slightly more diverse depiction of the spectrum, including its different manifestation in women.