The Deaf Mini-Film Festival (a Part of Bam Fest 2024)
Sun 22 Sep 2024- See Hear: A National Scandal
Synopsis: Yvonne Cobb investigates why there’s only one care home for elderly deaf people in the UK.
Running Time: 28 minutes and 50 seconds
- The Silent World of Barry Priori
Synopsis: Imagine being born profoundly deaf into an Italian migrant family of 10 without any means to communicate with them let alone the ability to hold a simple conversation. Barry Priori takes us on a journey that holds many surprises and revelations into the Deaf world from the 1950s to the present day.
Running Time: 27 minutes 30 seconds
- Threshold
Synopsis: Threshold is a deeply personal exploration of what it means to have a little machine as part of your body, a portrayal of the Deaf experience rarely seen.
The acceptance of a cochlear implant is not an automatic, seamless entry to a world of sound but rather a chaotic understanding of what it is like to hear.
Running Time: 7 min 38 secs
- Sunscreen
Synopsis: When Shelby and Mason get to the beach, they realize that neither of them brought sunscreen. Mason takes the blame, but when the bottle resurfaces at an inopportune moment, it turns out he did nothing wrong. This cautionary tale observes how accountability is handled in a crumbling relationship.
Running time: 10:44 minutes
- The Blooming
Synopsis: Finally, out of prison after 27 years, Solange, a deaf woman, has just moved into a small apartment. At sixty-seven years old, she is tasked with finding her place in a stigmatizing society whose codes she no longer knows. Will she be able to achieve full freedom and overcome all that is stacked against her?
Running Time: 12:23
- Mish & Graham
Synopsis: It’s 2032. The Connect App has changed everything: it could be the answer to the social care crisis or the beginning of the commodification of care. An unlikely friendship between two strangers in four meetings, moving between BSL and spoken English. Ready to Connect?
Running Time: 12 minutes
- Night Shift
Synopsis: A Deaf, female security guard on the night shift observes a man in a midst of a crisis: they find a new way to communicate.
Running Time: 10 minutes 49 seconds
- 19:24
Synopsis: Justine is French, Karl is Danish. Both deaf, they have had a long-distance romantic relationship for two years and keep the connection using new technologies. “19:24” is a short film that presents a conversation and its history over the notifications that appear on the screen of a smartphone. One evening, at 19:24, Karl sends a video message to say that he will not be joining Justine for the weekend and that he needs to think things over. A conversation follows which reveals, over the course of the interactions, the toxic dynamic of this couple.
Running Time: 10:55
- Hi Bunny!
Synopsis: Hi Bunny! is a comedy following Roxy’s attempts to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend Ricardo after being cruelly dumped on a doorstep. But how far will she go
Running time: 07:37
- Rhythm To My Ears
Synopsis: Rhythm To My Ears was developed through Solar Bear’s film school, Solar Reels. A Deaf man’s day is disrupted by tinnitus, but he will not let the tinnitus take over, not as long as he has dance and joy in his heart.
Running time: 5.09 mins
- Shhh!
Synopsis is: 5-year-old Amanda stops loud arguments of her parents.
Running Time: 2 min 36 seconds.
- Rite of Identity
Synopsis: Hana, a deaf child, has exceptional artistic talent but struggles with an overwhelming soundscape. Hana represents a collection of deaf people’s childhood stories.
Running Time: 4 minutes, 16 seconds.
- Look at Me
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, “Look at me” is a drama that follows the steps of Lucie, a young woman with hearing loss who is born in a family of well-established Classical musicians. One day she has an unexpected encounter with two BSL users, Chloe and Val, two friends who happens to be strolling and chatting where Lucie is going for her daily run. Meeting Deaf people for the first time, this encounter marks a journey of taking her life into her own hands, of exploring the complex concept that human identity can be, the importance of feeling accepted and understood within her own family and the relationship between the Deaf and Hearing communities.
Running Time: 9 minutes
- Dr Voxoff’s Sign Language School
Synopsis: “I’m not using my voice, even though I want to. I want to use my voice. But they took it away from me…”
Matthew Gurney brings us a dark, acerbic and witty dystopian vision of an alternative reality. Playing all the characters and finding innovative ways to experiment with the theatrical in film, Matthew’s film draws creatively on the Silent Movie genre and probes at a disturbing history that’s much closer to home than many realise…
Running Time: 11 minutes and 21 seconds
- La Maynade
Synopsis : Sarah does not know her parents. One day, a message tells her that her father, Marc, has disappeared in the Pyrenees. She decides to go to Gérard, Marc’s best friend, at “La Maynade” to find out more about his parents.
Running Time: 19 mins
- The Singer
Synopsis: In the loud streets of Glasgow, deaf song-writer Joe meets busker Andy. The two learn to communicate over their love of music and realise together they can create something unique.
Running time: 20 mins
