José – English version

José is a short story I wrote when I was in college in 2014 for an assignment. I made it very personal and used my own experience as the older sister of an austistic brother, using a very clean, children´s narrative and art.

Originally I designed this to be a print version of a book, I was reached put by a publisher, but unfortunately things at the end didn´t work out, they stole my idea and paid someone else to illustrate it. After that event, I was extremely discouraged and wanted to forget everything about this “assignment project”.

Years went by, José was growing older and I realized the deep emotion and love I had for this project and our need to share this to the world. I decided I was going to give it another try, but this time I didn’t want to get involved with third parties. My best idea was to apply my basic animation skills and make this a short video and just showcase it. So here I am, posting this for the first time, I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to reach out for any questions, suggestions or more details about our story, I will be very happy to answer it all.

José is currently in a assisted living home facility in California since 2012. He´s 24 years old, 6′ 2″ and about 240 lbs, still loves Oreo cookies and Toy Story. Non-verbal and can be extremely agressive with others. I visit him every week, we dance a lot, share a meal, watch movies and skate videos and paint or play with playdough.

José is the person who showed me what true love means.

If you liked the project and would like to help me create more content, I would truly appreciate it:

Paypal —
Venmo — @Sophia-Almeida-2
email: [email protected]

Thank you for taking this time and for all the good vibes.

music by Matti Paalanen