Everyday Activist - Mind My Mind | Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (Oscars 2020)

Posted on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 09:00 PM

Mind My Mind | Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (Oscars 2020)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

Mental health is never an easy topic to discuss, yet Mind My Mind and Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days, invite conversation. Often people fear those who appear and act differently, though Regina Pessoa’s Uncle Thomas provided a safe space for her as a girl to escape the din of the outside world and explore her inner self. Mind My Mind exposes the challenges of dating when a person is easily overstimulated due to autism. Sharing universal themes, both films were passion projects for their directors about people they loved, allowing for the creation of beautiful and awarding winning animation.

Much in the same way as Siqi Song, director of Sister, Pessoa transports us into her childhood memories of her Uncle Thomas using spot colour. She captures his peculiar behavior through his habits and personal objects incorporated with stop motion animation within the realm of digital. As an artist inspired by her Uncle Thomas, the digital portions contains a myriad of textures imported from Pessoa’s training as a painter. The effect is to beautifully integrate two distinct formats such that the viewer may not notice the transitions.

Reiterating the importance of family, Tom keeps in regular contact with his younger, autistic brother, Chris, inviting him out to parties with the intention to meet girls. Chris relates to the world using Hans, his internal script manager. Hans does his best to process the information Chris experiences to offer options for the most appropriate response to a situation. Often he stores the memories for later use. My favorite scene was Hans dusting off the script for flirting. When Chris and Gwen go off script, Hans a difficult time coping with all the new information.

Mind My Mind was a labor of love for director, Floor Adams. She wanted to make a film about falling in love with an autistic person for years. Watching how the film unfolded is quite interesting. The entire movie is available on Kanopy free with your Calgary Public Library card. Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days will be released via the National Film Board. A short interview with Pessoa explaining how she incorporated her uncle’s possessions is also on the NFB's Youtube channel.

Calgary Showtimes: Mind My Mind > | Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days >