01
About The Film
This 15-minute comedy/ drama is both
deeply personal and groundbreaking.
Written by and starring autistic actress Bella Zoe Martinez, the film follows 14-year-old Zoe as she navigates a frustrating series of auditions for autistic roles-only to be told again and again that she's "not autistic enough."
It's a poignant, humorous, and all-too-real
reflection on the challenges of authenticity
and representation in Hollywood.
02
Meaning Behind The Title,
"..[the film Rain Man] was the first step of helping kids on the spectrum today because, without that [movie], I probably wouldn't have gotten the services my siblings and I did when we were little.I hope my short film might be the next step for people to see what I've made and what we've all made and just care about what they see because people sometimes forget that people who are autistic are people too."
~ Bela Zoe Martinez - Deadline
03
The Mission
Story telling is how we make sense of the world—and how we help the world make sense of us. But honestly, it’s more than that. We grew up on film sets watching people solve the wildest problems just to tell a story. Like—“Let’s shoot underwater.” Cool, here’s a camera that works underwater. "Tom Cruise wants to hang onto the side of a biplane while it spins around"—sure, if he’s willing to do it, we’ll figure out a way to film it and give the safety guy oxygen while it happens. Sound, color, VistaVision, IMAX—Hollywood’s history was built on people figuring out how to make the impossible, possible—all because somebody said, “Hey, I have an idea.”
We created Once More, Like Rain Man because we were tired of watching autistic characters be played by non-autistic actors—or especially written by people who aren’t autistic. In our film, over 40% of the cast and crew were on the autism spectrum, neurodivergent, or differently abled. And no, it didn’t slow anything down—we just built the set around our needs and made the vibe work for everyone. That’s what representation looks like to me: not just being visible, but being in charge of our own stories. From our point of view, we’re different, not less. And when there’s been injustice or people left out, Hollywood finds a way to deal with it—even if they have to sneak it in at first. That gives us a lot of hope. Filmmaking can absolutely be a tool for representation and inclusion—which leads to change. Laughter is the best way to guide people into learning. It’s how people like us can stop being side characters in someone else’s story and actually tell our own.
Bella Zoe Martinez