OFFICIAL SELECTION - Mammoth Lakes Film Festival
Special Needs • Bullying • Autism • Seniors with Disabilities
Date of Completion: 2023 | Run Time: 22 minutes | Language: English with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Matt Fuller | Producer: Ira Heilveil
BECOMING HOWARD follows a fifty-year-old man with autism who has spent decades as a crossing guard in Southern California, finding order and quiet purpose in the rhythm of children, traffic, and routine. When an invitation to his high school reunion arrives, Howard returns to the Midwestern hometown he fled long ago, where buried memories and old wounds wait beneath the familiar streets. As he retraces the path of his younger self, Howard confronts the people and pain that shaped him — and begins to understand where he comes from. Tender and unflinching, it's a portrait of identity, belonging, and hard-won self-acceptance.