Nicholas wins prestigious award for autism documentary

 

A deeply moving and candid documentary on his battle with an autism spectrum disorder and depression has received international recognition for a young filmmaker with strong connections to Offaly.

29-year Nicholas Ryan-Purcell, who lives in Cloughjordan, on the outskirts of Birr, is no stranger to awards, having won two major prizes for his first feature-length film “Against the Odds, Racing with Gordon Lord Byron” at a film festival in Hollywood.

The award-winning documentary maker has now added another award to his collection, picking up the overall award for 'Best Editing of a Feature Documentary” at the prestigious London International Filmmaker Festival recently.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, Nicholas says he has been “literally blown away” by the reaction to his latest documentary “Living with Nicholas” which he describes as a “very therapeutic journey” as it saw him coming out from behind the camera lens to tell his own very personal story about his battle with Aspergers Syndrome and a deep and constraining depression that began after a traumatic childhood incident.

In the documentary his mother, Dorothy, admits that her only son was “always different” but he wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until he was 13 years old and in sixth class in primary school.

Nicholas says the documentary “opened the floodgates of emotion” for him, and helped him to recognise and come to terms with a traumatic childood incident which propelled him into a spiral of depression. “Making the film saw me delve very deeply into my own life story, during which I discovered that the sudden death of a man who used to give me a lift home from school had a very profound and lasting effect on me” he says.

That man was the late John Joe McGrath, who was revered by Nicholas Ryan-Purcell as a “guardian angel figure.” Recalling the day he died, the award-winning filmmaker, who was ten years old at the time, came out from school and didn't see Johnjoe's car. “I thought: 'where was he? Where was he? Had he forgotten me, and then one of the parents said he had died of a heart attack earlier that day..things began to crumble for me and break in two because I knew I wasn't ever going to see him again..it was like a light bulb suddenly switched off and an almighty depresson set in, and that lasted well into my adulthood” he recalls.

If it wasn't for the constant care, attention and concern of his parents, Dorothy and Oliver, and his sister, Joanna, along with the wider community, Nicholas says his life may have taken a darker turn and he may not have realised his potential.

His love of filmmaking goes back to 2001 when his mother bought him a camcorder, and he says he took to using it immediately as, due to his Aspergers diagnosis he is “a visual thinker” so he felt perfectly at home behind the camera lens. He actually made his first ever documentary “On the Titanic” when he was just 14 years old!

Nicholas received a Higher Diploma in TV Operations and Production from Ballyfermot College in 2012 and decided to set up his own production company, shooting corporate videos, and in 2016 he received widespread acclaim for his debut documentary “Against the Odds” which tells the fascinating life story of the Irish champion race horse, Gordon Lord Byron.

The idea of making a film about his own life journey and, in particular his Aspergers, was first mooted after a showing of “Against the Odds” at the OFFLine Film Festival in Birr, where he received a standing ovation.

“Living with Nicholas” received its worldwide premiere in Manhattan at the New York City Mental Health Film Festival last October and has already been shown in a large number of Omniplex and IMC Cinemas since its official release in January of this year.

Nicholas says he now feels “much more comfortable” talking about the challenges of living with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and hopes that his documentary will help to open up a wider discussion around autism and mental health issues.

He is happy that, ultimately, the message of his own personal story is one of hope and optimism, and for anyone looking for further information or copies of the movie, Nicholas can be contacted on his Facebook page: Nicholas Ryan Purcell Productions