Dances With Films Reviews: Alexander Jeffrey’s YOU HAVE NO IDEA captures a mother’s unrelenting drive to create a loving world for her autistic son

Alexander Jeffery’s You Have No Idea is a documentary about a mother’s journey to raise a son with autism at a time when care options were scarce. The 90s weren’t long ago, but as Beth James Burns explains, they were the dark ages when it comes to autism. There were therapists doing some great work, but Beth needed someone in her small southern Arkansas town. And, she needed something that would be consistent as her son Evan, grew to be a young man. The film captures her journey, while also revealing how far we’ve come as a country in the areas of autism treatment and care.

One resounding theme throughout the film is community. Beth uses the term “village” sometimes to explain the people who came out to help her raise Evan over the years. Every time she needed something to help the next stage of Evan’s development, Beth sought out a new person to add to her village. She was an advocate before the word was used. She uses her story to urge parents to find and create their own village.

Somewhere in the last scenes of the film, Beth stops using the word “village,” exchanging it for “family”.

You Have No Idea is the title taken from Evan’s first complete sentence response to another person. It comes from one of Evan’s favorite movies, The Lion King. The movie is one that Evan identifies with heavily, especially after Evan loses his own father Dennis. Through scenes from the film, Evan was able to explain his grief to someone from his village. The most moving part of the film is when Evan reads from the scrapbook created to help him remember his father.

Every step of the way, the film uses important life moments to highlight the difficulties experienced by families living with a developmental disability. For example, when Dennis was dying, the whole community that he and Beth built had to be prepped and deployed to help Evan understand death. It was a challenge that Beth also had to overcome while grieving her own husband. She explains it all in the film, as if it were another task on her list. However, the film’s framing gives her words the weight they need. You can feel her struggle and her determination. 

The documentary is full of touching moments as it flashes back on Beth’s journey to ensure that her son has care. The film flashes back to present day Evan, living in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. It isn’t until the end that we realize in building a community for Evan, Beth helped create a lot of resources and steppingstones for other families. There is probably a secondary documentary in how her persistence, insistence, and community building has led to awareness and programs for others.

You Have No Idea recently screened at Dances With Films.