A new Canadian doc follows four musicians on the autism spectrum as they release an EP

When experienced documentary short director Mark Bone started working with the ASD Band, he didn't realize he was about to make his first feature-length documentary. 

Then, he got to know the band members — and everything changed.

"It was four people, and four amazing, interesting and completely different people," he said.

"So we had to take time with each character, and it became very evident early on that, oh, this is a feature."

The four people at the heart of Bone's documentary are the members of the ASD (or Autism Spectrum Disorder) Band: lead singer Rawan Tuffaha, guitarist and vocalist Jackson Begley, drummer Spenser Murray, and piano player Ron Adea.

The four band members are all on the spectrum, and together with their musical director Maury LauFoy on bass, they're the focus of Okay! (The ASD Band Film).

The documentary is playing on Friday and Sunday at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto, as part of the Hot Docs festival. It can also be streamed online from anywhere in Canada for five days starting on Saturday.

ASD Band got its start through a charity called Jake's House, which supports families living with autism. Three of the members met onstage in April 2019, while performing Give a Little Bit with Roger Hodgson of Supertramp during a concert in Toronto organized for World Autism Awareness Day.  

Watch | Director Mark Bone and ASD Band members talk about their new documentary Okay!

"They got us to come up onstage at the Sony Centre at a sold-out show and perform that song with [Hodgson], and there was like a big orchestra behind us so it was really cool," Murray said. "At that point we didn't know that the band was going to be a thing, we thought it was just going to be a one time thing."

But he said it was easy to transition from that show to working together as a band.

"Every time we jammed together it all seemed to work. We all got along well musically."

Fast-forward to 2022. In February, the band played its first show at Toronto's Opera House and it also released a six song EP, the making of which is the focus of Okay!

Begley said he's happy with how the group was represented on screen.