Adrian Esposito | Filmmaking on the Spectrum

Adrian Esposito is a Rochester filmmaker who has been writing, producing, and directing films for more than a decade, from Bury My Heart with Tonawanda, a family film about how the Tonawanda Seneca Nation cared for its own people with disabilities, to Greetings From Tromaville!, his documentary on Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Entertainment. He is on the autism spectrum, spent his whole life in special education, and makes a point of putting people with disabilities in the kinds of movies you would never expect to see them in. His latest, Special Needs Revolt!, took six years to get made. In 2023, with the cast finally secured and the crowdfunding still short, he and his mom decided to pay for it themselves. In this episode he talks about the action comedy at the center of Special Needs Revolt!, a Rambo style hero with Down syndrome who takes down a dictator who has sent people with disabilities back to institutions, and the Troma, South Park, and Josh "The Ponceman" Perry influences behind it. He gets into the SAG-AFTRA complications that kept Perry out of the cast, why he believes ableism shaped how some of his crew treated him, the cue cards that helped lead actor Nolan Tierce deliver the film's closing speech, and the day he broke down and cried when an actor threatened to walk off halfway through production. He also shares where he stands on AI in filmmaking, the disability language he is comfortable with and why only the villains use the R word, and his next projects, Campfire Stories and a horror film called Wrong Town. Special Needs Revolt! screens Thursday, October 1 at 7:30 PM at The Little Theatre in Rochester. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold Open: "Would you do this to Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez if they were directing this movie?" 00:49 Welcome and Introduction to Adrian 01:30 Special Needs Revolt! and Six Years in the Making 03:21 Advocacy From the Autism Spectrum, Tonawanda, and Troma 06:42 SAG-AFTRA, Indie Budgets, and a Crew That Believes in You 09:43 Ableism on Set 10:47 Nolan Tierce, Cue Cards, and Adapting on Set 13:00 Fitting In, Set Anxiety, and an Actor Who Threatened to Walk 17:45 A Cult Following, Letterboxd Reviews, and the Haters 19:30 AI in Filmmaking, Tilly Norwood, and Carrie Fisher 23:24 Disability Language and Why the Villains Use the R Word 26:01 The Little Theatre Screening, What's Next, Troma, and Where to Find Adrian #SpecialNeedsRevolt, #DisabilityRepresentation, #IndependentFilm, #AutismSpectrum, #PositiveBlatherings, #ROCVox, #DownSyndrome, #RochesterFilm, #Troma