Episode 172: Tourette Syndrome representation in film – with Jack RH O’Sullivan

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Thanks for joining me today! This episode is about Tourette Syndrome. Way too often, when a person with Tourette Syndrome is depicted as a character in a movie or somewhere else in the media, they are presented as the butt of a joke, or someone to gawk at. I’ve been trying to think of a movie that has an authentic representation of someone with Tourette’s, and I couldn’t think of any – until recently, when I got to see a pre-screening of a film by today’s guest.

On this episode, I’m interviewing Jack RH O’Sullivan. He is the director and co-writer of “Tourettes & I,” a semi autobiographical coming of age short film (about 20 minutes long). It’s based on Jack’s life with Tourette’s – the bullying, discrimination, lack of information and the friendships that he’s experienced. As Jack talks about the film, you’ll hear him describe how the characters are based on the people in his life: the lead role, the best friend, the two bullies, and even the kind store manager that’s based on the people at the Fara Charity Shop where Jack works.

Jack made Tourettes & I to promote awareness and represent Tourette Syndrome authentically in film. We talk about why it was important for Jack to cast an actor with Tourette’s in the lead role, what the audition process was like, and what it was like directing the actor who got the lead role, whose name is Ashton Cooper (who is fantastic in this role). Jack also shares how some of the people who auditioned but didn’t get the part still got the opportunity to talk about their Tourette’s experiences in this film.

Tourettes & I comes out on New Year’s Day 2023. Starting then, you can watch it for free at DarkSkyTV.com, which is a website that shows movies by indie filmmakers. I’ll put the link in the show notes.

Jack and I recorded this podcast episode a few months before the film’s release, while the film was being pre-screened and was already winning awards at film festivals. The film is already having an impact on audiences, as well as the cast and crew, and it connected Jack to the wider Tourette’s community for the first time in his life. We talk about that on this episode, and so much more!

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And now, let’s get to my interview with Jack!

Carolyn Kiel: Jack RH O’Sullivan is an award-winning independent filmmaker and film director based in London, United Kingdom. He is autistic, has Tourette syndrome and OCD. He has directed 10 short films, and now he’s preparing to show his latest short film called Tourettes & I, a coming of age drama film about his own experiences with Tourette’s. With this film, he intends to raise awareness about Tourette syndrome so others don’t have to go through the tough childhood of bullying and misinformation he went through. Jack, welcome to the podcast.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Oh, thank you for having me. It’s a great honor.

Carolyn Kiel: Thank you. Well, I so enjoyed your film. I, I got to see it ahead of time. I know it’s coming out very soon and, I just love it and I am so excited to talk to you about it today.

Would love to learn more about your own story. So tell me about like, when did you get diagnosed with Tourette’s?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: I had kind of like a late diagnosis. I went to an all primary school not knowing I had Tourette’s. Because I was going to a place called Cams in London, which is like a place for people with disability to go. And it’s like the NHS but for disability. For many years, we didn’t know what was going on. They were still assessing me. It wasn’t until my last week of year six when there was more bullying and they came up with, you have Tourettes, you have autism, you have OCD.

And growing up as a kid, not knowing till that late that I had Tourettes syndrome, because I was this kid making noises and body movements that I couldn’t control. I thought something was really wrong with me. It was scary. I was getting a lot of bullying, because people called me “freak” and I was like, I dunno why I’m doing this. I can’t control it. But people just treat me differently. That’s also to do with the lack of information there is about Tourette’s. Because this was quite a few years ago, so Tourette’s was still not as well, it’s not really that well known , but it was really, really, really unknown back then.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. So yeah, I can imagine how scary that must be to have these tics and noises and not know what it is. Did your life change significantly after that? Like you mentioned that, you know, you faced a lot of bullying. Did you still struggle with that even after the diagnosis?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: I think after the diagnosis it didn’t get much easier because there’s that lack of information. There wasn’t really much online about it. Like, I’m very visual learner. I like to see visuals like photos and videos and there wasn’t much back then. It was just text on a website. To learn, really was to go to my local library, to find books and neurodiversity disability.

Actually my parents took me out of school. Because there was an instance where a kid, a kid in my class who loved tormenting me, tripped me down a flight of stairs, because he thought it was humorous and funny. And I was also chased down the street as well by another two students. So my parents had the idea to take me outta school because it was too unsafe.

And so luckily we had this diagnosis. I got to go to a fantastic specialty school in Hackney in London called Stormont House School, fantastic specialty school that deals with people with all disabilities. Being in school that you knew about Tourette Syndrome, I made more friends. The school wasn’t like a public school with like 900 or 800 students. It was like a school of a hundred students. Some of my best friends I’ve made from school, I’m still in contact with them. I actually graduated 10 years this year from high school, which is intense to think about. It was much easier to learn, be happy, myself.

Outside school, there was still lack of information. And the public, the public sees so funny, they laugh or they’ll treat you bad or if they don’t understand something, they’ll find it funny. People fear what they don’t understand. I go down the street, I get the bus, I tic, and it might be a loud tic or might be a series of consequential tics, you know? And the bus would stop, the driver would come out and kick me out because I was disrupting him or I was a nuisance on the bus. Or I go to my corner shop to treat myself to a fizzy drink or a sweet. Uh, and then I’d tic and I’d be laughed, bullied, and laughed out of places. It was all that thing growing up. So in school, I felt safe because I was with other people. I was the only one with Tourette’s in that school at the time, but they had dealt with kids with Tourette’s before that, so they knew how to cope.

So in school I was safe and happy. Outside school, I was going through a lot of hell with misinformation and bullying situations, where you were scared to go outside your front door. If someone sees you and they find you funny, you might do a tic. They might find it funny and laugh at you. Or I’ve had things thrown at me because of it. It makes you scared to leave your house.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah, it’s, it’s true, a lot of the information growing up is either medical information or it’s just, you don’t get to see a lot of other people with Tourette’s or maybe even autism in some cases, even though there’s so many, so many out there. But you know, you don’t see that.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: It’s also when you see people in the media, it’s used for humor.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: The media finds people with Tourette’s funny. They make noises, they laugh. In some cases they swear. That’s humor.

In the UK was a Channel 4 documentary called London’s Tourette’s Mystery. And it comes to the conclusion that Tourette’s is contagious and you can catch it from TikTok. You watch a TikTok, you can catch Tourette’s. And it set awareness so far back. And in other shows, there will be humor. You’ll find a character who has Tourette’s, you’ll find that they’re making a comedy bit. Let’s laugh at him! We don’t want that. That’s kinda the reason I want to do my film Tourette’s & I, because I want to tell the proper, authentic way and show like, this is what it really is like. We have days where we can be happy. We also have those negative days where we’re tired of having Tourette’s, we’re tired of the painful tics, or we’re tired of how people treat us because of our tics.

To have, be in the media and see something that uses humor or a documentary that says it’s contagious because of social media. Because every time you see something Tourette’s related: oh we’ve got documentary about Tourette’s or a TV show about Tourette’s, maybe this can be quite interesting. Or it’s a character. Like, there’s a show in the UK called Undateables. And people with autism, people with Tourette’s and other people who society would deem undateable would try, try and go on dates. And I hate the name because you’re like, so you are saying people with autism, Tourette’s and disabilities can’t date? So that’s not true. And I hate that it’s always used in that way to make it more funny for people. And it’s not why. And I think that’s one of the things that, another reason why awareness is so far behind when it should be straight there. Like autism has quite a lot. Like I’ve noticed that there’s quite a bit about autism now. Tourette’s is so far behind and I feel like we need to have more awareness for Tourette’s.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. It’s, it’s so important to create media that accurately portrays Tourette’s, because you’re right, there’s very little, if anything in the media that portrays it accurately. Or, you know, just not as a joke, as you were saying.

So, you’re a filmmaker. You’ve made many films up until this point. This is your 10th film, is that right?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Yeah, my 10th short film I’ve directed, but I’ve also DPed on other films and produced on other films and Key Gripped on other short films. But in terms of directing, I’ve done 10 short films.

Carolyn Kiel: Very cool. So yeah, I would love to tell the audience more about the film. So, it is based on your life, but what’s the basic premise or plot of the film?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Tourette’s & I is a semi autobiographical coming of age film about a character called Liam who’s going for a job interview. Due to a lack of information that leads to lots of bullying and intense abuse from people who choose not to understand, he has a tic attack. He has a lot of bad tics from the stress of the bullying that happened just before, and the stress of his interview, he, he breaks down. And the story’s like a day in life of how is he, how he copes with this idea that he feels he’s messed his interview up. Because his tics are so bad, he just let it out. And it’s his journey of that trials and tribulation of life with Tourettes, all in the form of a day where he deals with abuse and stress and breakdowns.

Carolyn Kiel: And you wrote the film as well, is that, is that correct?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Yeah. I co-wrote it with a friend of mine who makes also movies called Bill G Spires. I tried to script the film for years.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: I couldn’t quite get the right story I wanted. I said, dude can you help me with this? I beg of you, please. Help me write the script. And he came on and he asked me about my life with Tourette’s. He took some edits from the previous draft. I had the idea of the interview I wanted to do. He kept that and he thought, let’s do day-in-the-life format. So that’s, we came up together to refocus it and get the story we wanted.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering if the story kind of came easily to you, but it sounds like once you paired up with your friend, that he really helped draw out and put that whole plot line together based on your experiences.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Yeah, exactly. And in all these different experiences you could get different stories. Everything in the film’s happened to me at some point in my life.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: And it’s taking those things and creating a coherent storyline to create these things. So for example, when we write the draft, I had just seen “Belfast” at the London Film Festival. Kenneth Branaugh did a brilliant film, a coming-of-age film based on his life as a child in the sixties during the trouble starting in Belfast. And elements of his life that happened to him at the time, he mixed into the storyline. And he had fictional characters who were all based on his family. And that kind inspired me. Bill was kind of like, okay, so Liam is gonna be you, Jack. And Susan’s gonna be your friend, your colleagues, your friends at FARA who you work with who support you and get you through the stress of life. Greg will be based on your friends, best friends who you socialize more with. The bullies in the film that torment Liam in his estate where he lives, in his apartment, they’re based on about a hundred people in my life who I’ve known. There are people in the world who choose not to care. It’s fun to cause harm. That’s really it.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, I have to say those two bullies, those two characters, the two bullies that represent hundreds. Like for me, watching it, like I don’t have Tourettes, but that really just generated a lot of terror in me, like the panic that I felt. So it really came through. I’m like, Oh my God! So yeah, it was just really effectively portrayed.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: The funny thing is, those two actors are the kindest, most lovely people you’ll ever meet.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: On set with our lead actor Ashton, he also has Tourette’s. On set when we were directing them, we were planning the shot, set up the camera, the handheld rig, getting things set up. I direct them, and then we were taking moments to set up. They’d be like bantering. It’s a fun thing to get into character and they all loved it. And we just got on so well. So after, obviously after we say “cut” they hugged and they say, That was good. You alright mate? Yeah, Ashton would say, okay, let’s carry on. They’re the nicest people and I just love them.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah. That’s really, really great acting from everybody in the film. And I definitely wanna talk about Ashton. So, Ashton Cooper plays the lead, Liam, and as you said he has Tourette’s, and obviously the lead in the film, the character has Tourette’s. Now why was it important for you to cast someone with Tourette’s in that role?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: My producers, we made the agreement that we weren’t going to do the film if we couldn’t find someone with Tourette’s. Because I feel if you’re gonna do a film about Tourette’s or any disability, if you wanna get the full awareness, you need to have someone who has that disability. It would be weird if you made a film about Tourette’s with actors who didn’t have Tourette’s faking tics. A, it would be, it would not come off factual. You’re making awareness for Tourette’s, but you’ve got someone who hasn’t got Tourette’s.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: It also has extra emotional element. You’ve got this actor who has Tourette’s who can bring his or her experience of their Tourette’s into their role. Obviously the film’s based on my life. And when I cast, we had all these Zoom calls to like plan our character. I just said to him, try to bring your own elements of experiences with Tourette’s into the role. And so that’s why in the more heated emotional moments of the film, you can really feel that pressure he’s had with his Tourette’s coming onto the character’s pressure with Tourette’s. And so I knew always that I wanted to have someone with Tourette’s, for emotional levels and for authenticity. Because I don’t believe in making a film if it’s not, if none of it’s authentic, if it’s about disability.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, absolutely. And how did you cast for that role? Like did you have a casting call for actors with Tourette’s?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: We did. So we contacted Tourettes Action, the UK charity, and we asked, do you know anyone who has Tourette’s Syndrome who might be interested in auditioning for the role of this character? And we sent them the screenplay, they read the script. They loved the script, they, they said they loved it. They put an ad out on all their social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, an ad about our film and asked for actors. We read like 30 or 40 applications of people with Tourette’s applying for the role.

Ashton was the first person who applied that we spoke to. We had a call, me and Bill spoke to him and got his idea how it would work out. Then we asked him for a self take. And then we saw all 30, 40 applications. You would do recalls where you ask them to come back and do another scene, it helps you in the process get who you want. Or say that you’ve got 40 people, you cut down to 30, you do another recall, cut down to 20 and so on.

We did about four recalls. Then Ashton always stood in my mind. Everyone was great. Everyone was amazing. I loved everyone. But something about Ashton, when I saw him, I thought, I can see the vulnerability side of him, the emotional side of him. Also the really great element where he, you see it, but you feel you’ve gone for this, but you have hope. I didn’t wanna end a film like this negative. I don’t wanna do a film where it’s like oh, it’s always negative. Always gonna have negative things in life. I don’t wanna do like a dour drama, like really intense drama that has a sad ending, the character’s depressed. I wanted to show that in life, even if you have bad moments, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. There’s hope. And that’s what we wanted in the film. So you know, I needed to see someone who could show that negative side of depression, but also could show that if given the, the, the way to look, they could find the hope.

And he pulled off the emotional elements. He pulled off the drama elements. He understood everything that I was talking about the character. You know, we talked about my life experiences, his life experiences and that okay, I’m interested. So he was, he always stood in my mind. So after about four or five recalls, we gave him the role, and we were so happy.

And some of the people that applied for the film that didn’t get the role, we have them in the end credits doing video, doing video messages about their own lives. Their lives with Tourette’s, what they wanna talk about.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow, that’s great. Yeah, that’s great that you were able to include more of the people who auditioned. So the film ends with a feeling of hope for the character. I won’t give away the ending. And then there are testimonials afterwards from several people who have Tourette’s talking about, you know, short versions of their stories and giving their messages at the end, which is really powerful.

How did you decide to add that section at the end with those testimonials?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: I always felt like the film was great and I loved the film, but I thought there was elements where it wasn’t quite complete.

Carolyn Kiel: Mm-hmm.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: And the film it is obviously based on my life stories, so that’s just one perspective of the Tourette’s realm, one person saying, this is how their Tourette’s are. So everyone has different ways that their Tourette’s affects them. Some have different tics, that will have them even more, or differently. It’s one experience of Tourette’s. And you know, I kinda had the idea of, what if you get the people who apply for the film who didn’t get the role, what if we have them do video messages where they can have their storyline, their story’s part of it?

Not only will it add more emotional elements to the film to help people realize what Tourette’s is like, it will be more expansion of the Tourette’s in the film. It also, you give them a way to say their words, because not a lot of people with Tourette’s are heard. So I wanted to give them their say. What do you want the world to know? Even if it just saves one person, that’s the hope.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. And that’s powerful. And really powerful to see so many different people together who have Tourette’s talking about their experiences. Because the media and the world at large really doesn’t get to see people with Tourette’s because for whatever reason they’re just not portrayed in a realistic way. So yeah, that was really powerful at the end. And um, yeah, clearly has a lot of impact. It’s gonna have a lot of impact. Absolutely.

I’m curious, so when you were working with Ashton, since he has Tourette’s as as an actor, and then the character Liam has Tourette’s, did you encourage him to incorporate his own tics into the character, or were the tics like scripted, or a little of both?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: It’s very hard to script tics. We did write for reference, for example, with the screenplay, Liam tics here, he tics there.

Carolyn Kiel: Okay, yeah.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: But on set I’d tell Ashton, I said obviously we don’t wanna fake the tics. You wanna show authentic, if you can tic, whenever you need to tic, just get it out. It doesn’t have to be a precise moment, as long as you get the tics there.

When I auditioned him, his tics were really bad. And then when we came to set, he was doing really well, the tics had calmed down. They were still there, but they were quite calm. In the process of filmmaking, because the film was so tic heavy, we nearly broke him. Not on purpose, but he, his tics came out a lot more when he was doing the film. Because obviously I think it was the emotional scenes in the film as well. But as days go on, tics came back a bit. While it helped the film, I felt really bad because I felt that we broke him doing these emotional scenes. I apologized and I, I sent one of our production runners to go to M&S, Marks & Spencers to get a Belgian chocolate box for him just to say, Sorry, we’re so sorry.

I saw him at the screening premiere a couple weeks ago. We watched the film and it was just great. And he could see how great the film was.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, I can imagine that must be really emotional. It’s like, you know, I’ve never acted in a movie, but I can imagine especially something so close to your own personal experience, how that can be quite emotional.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: This is his first short film, because his career is more as teacher, he was teaching.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow!

Jack RH O’Sullivan: But he wanted, he felt like, I felt this was a chance to get this awareness out, so I’m gonna take a risk and do this. And we both agreed it paid off really well.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: And for the festivals we got into, it has proven that it’s worked really well. And also we’ve become really good friends on set. We still talk.

What I love about the film is, it brought me closer to the Tourette’s community. Because before I made the film, I’d never spoken to anyone with Tourette Syndrome before. I never knew anyone.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow!

Jack RH O’Sullivan: So it was always, I was always this only person with Tourette’s I knew in my area and who ticced, you know. Tourettes Action put me in contact with all these others with Tourette syndrome. It was amazing. And the others from the ending credits and Ashton for the role. It helped me so much. Got some great contacts. And now got some great friends that we can look back at and go like, this film brought us together. And that’s what I want.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. That’s amazing that you met so many people who have Tourette’s and that this film really brought it all together. And Ashton was phenomenal. Like, I’m a big Ashton fan.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Yeah, so am I. For his film debut, he was fantastic. There’s a scene, I won’t spoil it, where he, the character really has a bad breakdown. He’s lost. He’s been abused by the bullies. His interview’s not gone well. He’s at his lowest point, and his best friend, Greg, comes to see him. And it’s my favorite scene in the film, it’s the most emotional scene. That scene was so hard to film because it was so emotional. Both Ashton as Liam and Christopher Perifimou as Greg get to deal with some really strong emotional elements there. Because Greg’s gotta be like, “I’m your friend. How can I help?” Liam’s gotta be like, “I need help.” And it’s a beautiful scene.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: On set we were filming it, and Ashton and Christopher did one of the takes of the scene. I looked at Becky, my script supervisor, and she looked at me. You know, we just smiled and said, this is something special here.

Because emotional scenes are hardest to film, because you gotta get the emotions right. It’s so easy to be like over the top emotions. You get some films where they really dramatize or make it more theatrical, the emotion. We wanted a very realistic scene. And it had to be a defining moment that kind of details how the character, how Liam’s gonna make his next move. Ashton’s first time filming in a short film was amazing.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, yeah, that was a very moving scene and, and the character Greg is like the, the friend that we all hope that we have when we’re at our lowest point.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Greg was a great character. Christopher just played him so brilliantly. When I sent him the script, he told me that he has a friend, his friend has, I think, autism. And he said he kinda connected to the script because of how his best friend has gone through all this stuff, because he has autism, and how people have seen him. And that inspired him in his performance playing Greg. So it was great.

Sarah Leigh, who was our producer, she plays the manager. And she kind of brought that charming, nice kindness that Fara has. Because my team at Fara, the managers and team are the lovelist people. They’re family.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: You talk to her and you just, you don’t wanna stop talking because she’s so amazing.

She understands. She’s also neurodiverse and she owns a company called Inclusive Films, where she tries to get more roles for inclusive, inclusive films for actors and cast and crew with neurodiversity. And she’s just lovely, she bought her own elements to the character, which just makes it so great.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow, that’s great. That’s really great.

So, the film’s coming out soon and you’re currently in the, in the process of screening it and entering film festivals. And so what kind of response have you received so far from audiences?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: We had two premiere events. One in cinema, one in the hall. Cinema was amazing. Everybody loved it. We actually had people from Tourettes Action charity to come and support the film. They had Tourette’s as well. They said that they felt that they were being represented properly, which is great.

There’s this great website called TicTock Therapy, who do professional help and therapy for people with Tourette syndrome and tic disorders. Her name’s Sarah Sharp. She came to the premiere. She told me that to her it was, and her kids I think have Tourette’s, it’s the most authentic representation of Tourette’s she’s seen. And that made me happy.

And the actors loved it. It’s our first time seeing our film in a cinema screen, so they’re like, Oh my God, I can see myself there! And I’m just watching, like this is my film in the big movie theater. This is intense. This is amazing. We have guests and family and friends, people who come to watch it. That’s amazing.

And festivals are doing quite well. We actually got into two selections, two official selections. Two in London. The other one is that I left off, the other one is Lowestoft Film Festival. It’s a new film festival in Lowestoft in England. Now we’ll be going to that one in person to screen the film and do Q&A. So that’s really amazing. We also received three awards for this film so far. We won best trailer, a jury award for best drama short, and we also won an award in Turkey, for best of jury, jury special award for the film. So far the film, it’s not out yet, but in the festival circuit and what we see it’s being received really, really well.

And in November, one, my team members Bill who’s also my friend, he, he used to, to assist film in London for people with neurodiversity. One of his teachers, Elena, she came to the premiere and we’re arranging to actually screen the film to the entire school. So cast and crew will come and speak to the entire school where students, all these neurodiverse students, and they do Q&A. And they’ve also got Tourette’s students there. It would be great way to show them what it’s like to have Tourette’s and be more aware and have their vision shown.

And then we got, next month TicTock Therapy and I are doing the Zoom screening for the film to raise money for Tourette’s, which is going to be amazing. It’s just, it’s been received so well. I’m just so pleased. When you make a film as a director, you’re always like, I really hope in some way people connect to this film, and having people connect has been really great.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s awesome. It seems like connection is a really important outcome of screening and, and sharing this film. What are your goals for Tourettes & I in terms of, you know, it’s great positive media representation, but will you make more films about Tourette’s, do you think?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: I definitely wanna make more Tourette’s films. I would love to make a feature film about Tourette’s syndrome or maybe a mini series would be quite interesting. Making that positive media will be really good to show people, this is what Tourette’s is like. It’s not humorous, it’s not funny. We have our down moments where people treat us badly. This is what it’s like. This is us.

And we talk about doing screenings around in the country at workshops, to screen the film at Tourette’s events and show the film and talk about the film. Get more Tourette’s awareness. The reason we made the film is to gain awareness for Tourette’s syndrome, and we wanna do that, so we’re gonna work as best we can to get those Tourette’s awareness out there.

The film premiers on DarkSky TV, which is a free streaming site online. It’s free to use. They don’t have to log in. It’s completely free. It’s kinda like Netflix for indie filmmakers to show short films and films, and web shows online for free. That’s gonna be great. And on New Year’s Day, it’ll premiere on that site. Jeevan, who owns it, he came to the premiere. He’s a great, lovely guy. We love him and he’s agreed to help us with the film and support the film. And then we’ll keep showing the film and do more festivals and hopefully arrange more events to go around and show the film.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s cool. And the streaming service you mentioned, is that available internationally for people to go on and see the film, do you know?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Yes.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s great. Okay. Yeah, we’ll definitely have to share that link when it’s available. But I guess in the meantime, where can people go to learn, learn more about the film or just learn more about the type of films that you make?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: If you follow our YouTube channel, Movie Making Media, you’ll be able to find trailers, and soon there’ll be a featurette about the film coming out soon. You find more about the film there. We have our website, www.MovieMakingMedia.co.uk has a full page dedicated to Tourettes & I. You can follow us on our social medias, like Movie Making Media on Facebook or Instagram, we share about the film all the time. So in, in so many ways you can learn about it. Tourettes Action, their Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, you can find them internationally, you can find more about their post about us.

Carolyn Kiel: Cool.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: We’re working on the featurette, at the moment, about the film to put online soon.

Carolyn Kiel: I’ll put some links to some of the different places, like the websites so people can find out more information about the film. This is great.

Jack, it’s been great talking to you. You know, as we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Jack RH O’Sullivan: When the film comes up, please do watch it. Even if you haven’t got Tourette’s, I want it to be a film that anyone with disability feels that the lack of information or feel that the public isn’t nice to them or they feel stress in their life because of their disability, I feel like you will be able to connect with the movie. Even though it’s based on Tourette’s, we made it for all the disabilities to be able to connect with the film.

I wanna say, if you have a disability, whether it’s Tourette’s, autism or any neurodiversity or disability you have, there’s always hope. Even if at some point you might feel like you’re really upset or down, or people might treat you differently, or you feel like you’re not fitting in with people. Just remember there’s always hope at the end of the tunnel. There’s always hope to find. We are part of a community. We are all together and you know, people who have other disabilities and who want to learn more about Tourette’s and autism and all these different disabilities, research it. The internet is massive now. There’s charity websites and YouTube videos that I didn’t have when I was growing up, you can access now and learn about it and just literally take it all in.

And when you see someone making noises or body movements, don’t automatically assume “ha ha that’s funny, I’m gonna insult them.” Or don’t just avoid them. Be someone who can put their hand over their shoulder and be a shoulder to cry on if they need, or someone to talk to. We’re all together. We’re all, we’re all humans. We need to be together. We don’t need to be separated. So if you see someone who looks like they got a disability that makes them stand out, don’t laugh, don’t tease. Basically be there for them, because friendship is the most powerful thing in the world.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah. That is really powerful. Thank you. Thank you for those words. And your film is definitely gonna help bring those communities together and educate a lot of people about what Tourette’s is really like. So yeah, Jack, thanks again so much for being on my podcast.

Jack RH O’Sullivan: Thank you for having me.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at beyond6seconds.net. Until next time.