Hello Stranger
Synopsis
Joe wants to make this film so people ‘get’ him, know what it means to be neurodivergent, and what he has been able to achieve despite many challenges. Beryl shows the evolution of a family created from scratch that’s had to keep adapting. The challenge and recalibration of being a parent and a lifetime carer.
The core of the story is told through 28 years of home movie footage- sparky, warm and funny as Nathan/Joe develops into the man he is today. Alongside, a growing boy is shown, much misunderstood and almost destroyed by the prejudice and ignorance surrounding neurodivergence. The family therapy received along the way offers some support, but also reveals how the family dynamic was influenced by Beryl’s own experience of childhood neglect.
Beryl first saw 6-month-old Nathan on a VHS tape. She and husband Dave responded with a video welcoming him to their home. For the past 28 years Beryl has recorded “our feelings, our joy and our pain" so that Nathan could better understand his story later in life.
Details
- Year
- 2026
- Type of film
- Features
- Running time
- 87 min
- Format
- Digital
- Director
-
Beryl Richards
- Producer
- John Archer, Alex Usborne
- Executive Producer
- Lisa Marie Russo, Clara Glynn
- Editor
- James Alcock
- Composer
- Stephen Warbeck
Genre
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Hopscotch Films
John ArcherFilm City Glasgow
401, Govan Road
Glasgow
G51 2QJ
Page updates
This page was last updated on 1st September 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Director: Beryl Richards
Year: 2010
In a Perfect World what would you wish for? A 12 minute film poem using the visual theme of a wishing tree, created from the surreal and lyrical answers given by the students of Centre Academy Special School, London.

Director: Beryl Richards
Year: 2004
Two nine-year-olds, one a refugee from China, find friendship on a beach while building sandcastles.

Director: Hannah Berryman
Year: 2024
A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle. Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all. At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere