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María's journey

Within its work to extend knowledge of autism to Society, the Fundación Orange has produced Maria's journey, a short animated clip by artist Miguel Gallardo, disseminated free of charge on the Internet via their website www.fundacionorange.es

María's journey (english subtitles, video compatible with Windows Media)
María's journey on Youtube

When Mary is with us it makes the world a better place, relates Miguel Gallardo in Maria's journey, a small excursion into the inner world of a autistic girl, a journey full of colour, love, creativity and originality, beginning with the trajectory of parents who see their daughter behaving differently prior to the confirmation of the diagnosis: Autism. The idea says Miguel Gallardo, was to try to get into Maria´s world, try to understand and see the things that perturbed her in our world. Things that she liked, that made her smile and a small bit of her world as I imagined it to be, in a fluid, fun and understandable way, even for a public who know nothing about this disorder.

The clip, as its author says, it is not a story about autism. It´s about love. About the relationship between a father and daughter from who despite the communication difficulties transmit their message of love loud and clear.

Maria's journey is aimed at the general public and also puts across an optimistic message to parents and relatives of people with autism. Many people will think that it is a do gooder or politically correct message, says Gallardo, not for me, I´ve learnt so many things with Maria that for me it´s the truth." I don't want all parents to share my point of view or my ideas, what I do want to get across is not to get settled in the pain and suffering, but to move forward. I know that sometimes one is unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but there is one. "And that light makes us grow and our children grow with us, any accomplishment, however small and I am talking about just knowing how to put on a pair of socks, is a miracle and that’s how we should see it.

Maria's journey follows on from the comic by Miguel called Maria and I, likewise the film of the same name released this summer, in which the Fundación Orange also participated. One of the Fundación Orange vocations is autism and we put a lot of effort into our projects, said Manuel Gimeno, General Manager of the Fundación Orange in Spain, therefore when a copy of the "María y yo" (Maria and I) comic by Miguel Gallardo, fell into our hands it went from hand to hand throughout the Fundación, we all shared the same emotion: we fell in love with him." It was exactly what we would have liked to have in order to help spread the word about autism. So we got in touch with Miguel to express our admiration and offer our collaboration in any project he might have had in mind .

This collaboration turned into the participation in the documentary and consolidated it with this short film clip. A work of art in miniature that exudes love, a sense of humor, art and creativity from every pore, describes Gimeno.

Diffusion online

The short film clip can be freely seen on the Internet, the medium par excellence, according to Manuel Gimeno, something that is well known to the Fundación Orange, following the success of the clip of My little brother from the Moon, which can also be seen on the website. A medium that will make it possible for Maria not only to get to the usual forums where people are looking for information about autism spectrum disorder, but also to all society, which was the intention of the Fundación Orange. I believe we are at a time where the visibility of autism is very important. We are trying to get closer to the public in general who are uniformed, with no one close who is directly affected or simply those who do not want to have anything to do with the word disability , says Gallardo,with all these different formats (comic, movie, film clip) we have come closer to them, as well as the community of parents and relatives of people with autism from a familiar perspective, vital and optimistic but that does not leave out the tough part.

The clip, with script, illustration and direction by Miguel Gallardo, has the addition of music by Pascal Comelade, animation by La Pera animación, post-production by Nueve Ojos, editing and coordination by Karin du Croo and the soundtrack by Humanvoices.