In Normal Sucks, a short documentary film by Pascui Rivas, based on the best-selling book by Jonathan Mooney, Mr. Rivas sets out to show us the tyranny of “normal” and the power of different. In the film, we meet Jonathan Mooney, a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father who meditates on his life, and offers the radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them to succeed.
In this film and in his book, Jonathan explores the toll that not being “normal” takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity, abilities, and disabilities, we can start a revolution.