The Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin’s 2021 annual Autism Gala is different this year because of COVID-19. We have held a Gala for over 30 years, and on Saturday, April 17, 2021, we will be throwing an UnGala to keep the tradition alive! This virtual event includes highlights of what we have been doing to serve the needs of the community during this difficult time and a watch party for the feature film: The Reason I Jump, based on the best-selling book by Naoki Higashida. This immersive film explores the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people around the world.
The night also includes an online auction and interactive chat opportunities for attendees.
Café Hollander restaurants are partnering to provide Lowlands On The Go food options for the UnGala, with 15 percent of evening sales benefiting the Autism Society SE WI.
Your support allows us to continue to provide programs and services that help break down barriers, educate the community, understand and celebrate the spectrum!
Note: Popcorn Party Packs are still available!
Orders placed after midnight on 4/15/21
will receive their movie streaming code via email
on date ordered; however, Popcorn Party Packs
will be delivered after the UnGala.
‘The Reason I Jump’ Review: Inventive Doc Puts Autism In a New Light – Variety
“Life-changing” is the kind of hyperbolic descriptor thrown around all too easily in the world of publishing, but it could quite reasonably be applied to Naoki Higashida’s nonfiction bestseller “The Reason I Jump.” Written when Hagashida was just 13 years old, it’s a unique account of autistic spectrum disorder from the inside, giving voice to a community frequently described as “non-speaking” and dispelling multiple misconceptions about the way they see and feel the world around them. Translating that perspective-shifting achievement to the screen is a tall order, but Jerry Rothwell’s documentary of the same title does so with imagination and grace: Not so much a direct adaptation of Higashida’s book as an application of its insights to the lives of five other young people diagnosed with ASD, it finds supple visual and sonic language to bring sensory dimension to their experience.
It’s easy enough to see how “The Reason I Jump” nabbed an audience award at Sundance in January — it’s as emotionally piercing as it is beautiful to behold — but that’s not to say the film plays to the gallery. Rather, it counts significantly on the viewer’s own capacity for empathy and interpretation, evoking autism through impressionistic detail instead of pedantic medical explanation. – Guy Lodge