THE STIMMING POOL​

Dirs. The Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker) and Steven Eastwood

Prod. Chloe White & Steven Eastwood

UK. 67.00. 2024. S16mm (digital transfer)

 

Skip the test, drop the mask, stray through nested worlds rewilded by neurodivergence. 

 

A B-Movie film club host introduces a lost animated horror movie; a young woman 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 a hybrid film that enters the possibilities of a world informed by neurodiverse perspectives. The film’s drifting form is built around the concept of an autistic camera, whose curiosity discovers a relay of subjects who stray through the world, revealing environments often hostile to autistic experience and quiet spaces that offer respite from them. 

 

The film features a cast of autistic actors and non-actors, including neurodivergent performance artist Dre Spisto. It was shot on Super 16mm by cinematographer Greg Oke (Aftersun). 

​

Winner: 2025 BFI Chanel Award

​

Distributed theatrically in the UK in 2024 by Dartmouth Films

​

​

​

​

​