SIFF closer look: Ben X
Asperger Syndrome (AS) is an autism spectrum disorder that causes those who have it to become focused on a single topic or subject to the exclusion of all others. People with AS are rarely cognitively impaired but they have poor social skills that make interacting with other people a challenge. “Individuals with Asperger’s Disorder usually want to fit in and have interaction with others; they simply don’t know how to do it. They may be socially awkward, not understanding of conventional social rules, or show a lack of empathy. They may have limited eye contact, seem to be unengaged in a conversation, and not understand the use of gestures.” [Autism Society of America]
In the film Ben X, the title character is a teenaged boy with AS whose struggles with socialization make him an easy target for the bullies at his school. Ben’s only escape is in the world of online gaming, sinking himself into a game called Archlord. A particularly tough day at school sends Ben spiraling into a mindset where he views the bullies making him miserable as video game characters and starts to take action accordingly. I recently spoke with writer/director Nic Balthazar about the film.
“The beginning of it all was when I was asked to write a novel for young people who didn’t read,” a task made more challenging because, he says, “I was the writer who didn’t write.”
“The same day that they asked me, in the paper there was a story about a 17 year old boy who committed suicide by throwing himself off a medieval castle where I live, in Gent, Austria.”
The teen, who had AS, left goodbye notes in which he said that he’d been bullied to death. Balthazar used that incident as a starting point for his novel.
“I think a story like that appeals to your sense of justice,” says Balthazar. “You read it and you’re so damn angry. Any suicide of a young person is awful in itself.”
When he sat down to write the film, Balthazar envisioned it as a “three-act thriller” so it was hardly surprising when a producer read it and wanted to option it. Before the story became a film, however, Balthazar was approached by a young actor who wanted to do a solo piece based on the novel. Although the novelist initially thought it was a bad idea–how does one transform a complicated story with many different characters into a solo theater piece?–the actor wouldn’t accept a no answer and eventually Balthazar was convinced to give it a try. The theater piece had a lot of video pieces accompanying the actor, as well as video game footage and dance music, turning the book for people who don’t like to read into theater for people who don’t like to go to the theater. The play’s innovations made it a success, spawning 250 sold out shows before the story was finally turned into a movie.
There’s a serious message behind Ben X–per Balthazar, “why not use the medium to send a message?” but keeping in mind that people “don’t want to see that waving finger all the time” and gearing the film to a younger audience, he knew that the film had to be visually very attractive.
“This young boy is very much into video games, so we took that and with the video game universe, because of online community gaming, it all came together: this is a boy who lives in the alternate reality of video games and tries to train himself for real life.”
The film’s portrayal of the video game universe earned it a Red Star award for innovation at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Balthazar: “I think it’s well deserved.” He says that Ben X is the first film, or one of the first films, that has been partially filmed in cyberspace, by capturing images of game play. “It’s the wet dream of any director–your actors will do whatever you want.”
To ensure that online gaming was portrayed accurately, Balthazar and his crew arranged to “film” the gaming segments in an actual MMORPG called Archlord. It was an exciting experience for Balthazar: “I could do the most incredible camera angles without a crane or even a camera!” One of the interesting parts of the experience while creating the video segments for Ben X was his discover that high level characters are like “superstars” of online gaming and other characters will flock to be near them, requiring his crew to perform “crowd control in cyberspace”. To his relief, when the situation was explained to the gamers who’d gathered round the high-level character needed to tell the story, they were cooperative and he used a number of gamers as consultants to ensure that he was portraying their world as they see it.
In addition to making sure that he got online gaming right, it was important for Balthazar to make sure that he was getting AS right and so he consulted with a number of autism experts–people with autism, professionals in mental health and others. It was a challenge to balance the Ben character: “It is dangerous to overplay it, to underplay it, or to just miss the boat.” In the film, he doesn’t seek to simply talk about autism, he aims to tell the story as seen through the eyes of someone who is autistic.
“We define autism as a problem of empathy,” Balthazar says, which means that “autism is a perfect allegory for so many adolescents who have the same fear. They don’t understand the world and the world doesn’t understand them.”
Ben X screens Sunday, June 1 at 4:00 pm at Uptown Cinema.
