Jon Beaton

An autistic documentary filmmaker studies two neurotypicals, trying to understand their shared way of being through objects, language and small social gestures. As the day draws on, his sense of alienation slowly emerges.

Filmmaker Jon Beaton has always felt like an outsider. When TikTok’s powerful algorithm starts sending him content from the app’s autistic community, he has an epiphany – could this explain everything? My Diagnosis explores the tension between self-diagnosis and institutional validation through an intimate blend of personal vlogs and fictionalised recreations.

Always the last to know, filmmaker Jon Beaton learns of his autism late in life – a diagnosis that brings liberation and mourning in equal measure. Seeking company, he turns to four figures who may have missed the memo entirely: Charles Darwin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Émile Reynaud, and the Buddha. Beaton builds a praxinoscope – Reynaud's own invention – to bring them back to life.