THE STIMMING POOL

A review by Ariadne Si Suo

‘Why not give others a chance to see it? … For something that you may not understand, but can still have a bit of a meaning.’

THE STIMMING POOL is an immersive experience of navigating the world with neurodivergence, co-created by a collective of autistic artists, the Neurocultures Collectives (Sam Chown-Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker), and filmmaker Steven Eastwood.

Everyday scenes are coloured with traces from Sam Chown Ahern’s character’s eye tracking test. We follow the red dots frantically jumping around, gradually losing the ability to focus our attention. We meet the dog Chess who can hear all the birds in the trees, and we find ourselves becoming increasingly sensitive to sounds. Facing the same tree, our mind now unconsciously works extra hard to separate all the environmental sounds. Hyperawareness soon swallows us up. We can no longer bear the sensory overload in the pub. Just like Dre Spisto’s character, we long to escape.

Thanks to the extraordinary editing by Sergio Vega Borrego, we are always in a state of confusion – Is this still the eye tracking test? Is Robin Elliot-Knowles’s character talking about the animated horror film he curated for the Hastings Electric Palace cinema, or this very film we’re watching right now? The result is wonderful – we abandon the search for a logical answer, and instead live happily in this stream of consciousness. Camera pans from the empty wall. Nature transforms into colourful animation. Every time it gets a bit overwhelming, empty spaces, nature, and the soundscape calm us down. Eventually, we come to a space where all is allowed, and all there’s left is pure joy.

THE STIMMING POOL is more than a film; it is a collective movement. ‘Nothing about us without us’ guides the co-creation process – it uses a participatory model to give neurodivergent creatives agency and complete creative control. With representations both on-screen and off-screen, this film is an important step in empowering neurodiverse artists, audiences, and communities. Learn more about the team and the co-creation process on their website:The Stimming Pool.

Showing at the Cambridge Film Festival on 26 Oct and 29 Oct. The Stimming Pool | Cambridge Film Festival. Join us for an in-person Q&A with directors Steven Eastwood and Georgia Bradburn after the screening on 26 Oct.