Visible impact: how Hong Kong film ‘Invisible Differences’ is changing perceptions of neurodiversity

Bowers’ initial vision was a simple voice over Arthur’s striking artwork telling the story of Hong Kong’s neurodiverse community. “Then I went, no, I’m not neurodivergent. I can’t speak to this experience,” says Bowers. So, drawing on her documentary filmmaking background, which includes The Helper and reFashioned, she reached out to the Talos community to see if anyone would be open to talking about their neurodiversity, what they wished people understood better and how their perceived disabilities can manifest as superpowers. “I wanted to frame it in a positive light,” says Bowers. She had an overwhelming response. 

After interviewing a range of individuals with various diagnoses, including Arthur and his twin sister Chloe, who is also neurodivergent and adds the colour to Arthur’s drawings, Bowers realised that the initial idea for a three-minute video was not going to work. She had eight minutes of audio—which had left Schaus in tears when she first heard it—and there was nothing she wanted to cut. “I went back to Mary and said sorry, this little promo that I thought we were going to do, just got a bit bigger.”

See also: “You don’t look autistic”: Why neurodivergent women have been sidelined

Invisible Differences has been a work in progress since then. Bowers has completed an animatic—a preliminary, animated version of a storyboard with selected soundbites—funded through a generous grant to the Talos Foundation. 

As the film develops, a key consideration has been how neurodiversity is framed and delivered for a Hong Kong and broader Chinese-language audience. While there is a growing body of films globally—particularly in Western animation and independent cinema—that centre neurodiverse lived experiences, Chinese-language films tend to approach neurodiversity primarily through the lens of family and caregiving responsibility. In works such as Ocean Heaven (2010) and Tomorrow is Another Day (2017), autistic or neurodivergent characters are typically positioned within narratives of parental sacrifice, long-term care and social endurance. While the portrayals may be empathetic, neurodiversity is rarely explored as identity or self-defined experience.

Invisible Differences offers an opportunity to shift this framing. With many of the interviewees being bilingual, Bowers interviewed them in both English and Cantonese to create two versions of the film, allowing neurodiverse experiences to be spoken in both languages.

Beyond language, Schaus insisted on another form of representation: the inclusion of a non-speaking person like Alex. This led Bowers to Nicklaus, a 17-year-old schoolmate of Alex’s, whose interview became a cornerstone of the project. Like Alex, Nicklaus communicates using an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device, through which he was able to respond to questions for the film. His answers were prepared in advance of the recording sessions with support from his teachers.

“There is not a dry eye in the house when they hear Nicklaus communicate,” says Schaus. “It’s so important because that representation of a non-speaking person is transformative for people throughout the world, but especially in Hong Kong where that’s seen as shameful. But many of these non-speaking people are very smart, and they need a voice.”

While there’s no sound design or music yet, Bowers is working with a team of neurodivergent and community members which includes Hong Kong composer Mandy Woo, who is neurodivergent, and Filipino art director Meneer Marcelo, who is father to a non-verbal autistic daughter. The next phase of the film’s development will also include the labour- and time-intensive task of hand-drawn 2D animation—Bowers anticipates eight months of work for the 10-minute film. She’s averse to employing AI tools to do this, in order to protect Arthur’s intellectual property and maintain a commitment to the human touch of neurodiverse creators.

The film—for which Talos is crowdfunding to raise HK$390,000—is by no means the end goal. Bowers’ vision extends beyond the screen. She hopes the animation can inform a large, interactive art installation, through which people can start to understand what it’s like to navigate the world as a neurodivergent individual. Perhaps they walk through with headphones on and listen to an interviewee’s full story. Maybe they interact with sound, colour and light to feel what it’s like to be sensory overloaded. Or they can experience how someone who is neurodivergent encounters and responds to colour or texture. “My big hope is that you have this beautiful installation that looks incredible, but there’s another layer and people come away with a bit more knowledge and understanding and empathy,” says Bowers.

Schaus’s own experiences speak to this vision: “When I go on a hike with Alex, and we’re walking through the forest and he hears the wind blow through the trees, he closes his eyes and he smiles, and I know that for a person like Alex the sensory experience is totally different than mine. What would be so beautiful about something like this [installation] is letting people see the beauty as well, because in seeing the beauty you understand, you empathise, but you also change your mindset. And ultimately that’s what Talos Foundation wants to do.”

To support Invisible Differences, an animated short film telling the story of neurodivergent lives in Hong Kong, and ensure it reaches the screen, contribute to the crowdfunding campaign.

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