Daytime Documentary Series: An Open Door & Sensory Overload
About
Join us for a brand-new series of three documentary days. Each will be daytime screenings and link with social themes throughout Autumn. The films will be hosted by local film academic Dr. Damien Spiccia, with a lively post-film discussion following each documentary. This Month, to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day, we are screening: "An Open Door" (2024) dir John Barnhardt and "Sensory Overload" (2025) dir Kiana Moore.
Films provided by Kanopy.
An Open Door (2024) dir John Barnhardt
The international award-winning documentary that reflects on the influential life and work of Dr. Temple Grandin as a champion of the humane treatment of livestock, autism rights, and inclusive neurodiversity by employing her gifted insights from her personal experience with autism and visual thinking. The film speaks with Dr. Grandin, her colleagues, industry professionals and those she has influenced to celebrate her groundbreaking life, lessons learned and lasting legacy.
Film Duration: 58 min
Sensory Overload (2025) dir Kiana Moore
Nearly 20% of the world is believed to be neurodiverse. This groundbreaking documentary aims to help rewrite the narrative around neurodivergence and sensory sensitivity by telling the true stories of individuals who prove that these aren’t deficiencies—they’re just differences.
Filmed over the course of a year, it follows each of our heroes as they navigate the ups and downs of their everyday lives in a world that wasn’t designed for neurodiversity. We’ll witness the ways neurodiversity can be a superpower, how it exists on a spectrum that touches so many of us, and how a deeper understanding of neurodiversity can help to create a more inclusive—and wonderfully sensitive—world for everyone. This isn’t just a film about the neurodivergent spectrum, it’s about the spectrum of human experience.
Film Duration: 56 min
Date: Thursday 2 Apr 2026
Time: 2pm to 4.30pm
Venue: City of Perth Library
Book: https://www.trybooking.com/DGJQG
Location
City of Perth Library
573 Hay St, Perth WA 6000
What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question. The subjects are Jill Tarter, involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1970s, David and Jared Milarch, tree farmers, who clone old-growth trees to combat climate change; Robert Darden, a gospel music archivist founder of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project; Paolo Soleri, a controversial architect behind Arcosanti, a town designed to test theories about housing an overpopulated planet while also preserving and nurturing the natural environment; and Jeff Stein, Soleri’s mentee at Arcosanti in the 1970s and successor after his death. We discover what inspired them to begin, what obstacles they face, what drives and sustains them, how they measure success of an endeavour they will not live to see completed. And who among us will truly see our work finished before we leave this earthly plain?
Film Duration: 1hr 30min
Date: Friday 22 May 2026
Time: 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Venue: City of Perth Library
Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/DGJQT
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