A short film shot by young deaf people from Dunedin has made it on to the red carpet at this weekend’s New Zealand Deaf Short Film Festival (NZDSFF) in Wellington.
Otago Association for Deaf Children (OADC) committee member Justine Farquhar said she was very proud of her hearing-impaired son Luka’s role in the group’s submission to the 2017 festival.
Luka (12) worked with two other young deaf people and a small production team over several weekends to craft Falling on Deaf Ears, a sixminute film about everyday communication difficulties faced by deaf people.
The film was then submitted for the youth category in the biennial competition.
The NZDSFF has just three rules: the film entered must have significant deaf involvement in its production, be about deaf life or deaf issues and it must showcase deaf talent.
Parents at the OADC organised the film project to bring together members of its junior youth group.
‘‘As they go to different schools they don’t get a lot of opportunity to get together, to talk and communicate and do a project together,’’ Mrs Farquhar said.
She watched her son’s confidence growing as he made the movie.
‘‘He had lots of fun, he was the only boy involved in the project.’’
Mrs Farquhar thought that it was the first film made solely by deaf children from Dunedin.
‘‘The kids made it completely themselves; they wrote the script themselves, filmed it all on an iPhone and then Josje Lelijveld and Tina Hughes edited it for them,’’ Mrs Farquhar said.
Sign language tutor and award-winning film-maker Josje Lelijveld, who is also deaf, said through an interpreter, the film project was part of a larger project called ‘‘Strengthening Dunedin’s Deaf Community’’.
The opportunity to travel to the film festival in Wellington would give the Otago children access to the wider deaf community where ‘‘they will see how other deaf people are succeeding and they will find role models to encourage them to achieve more,’’ Mrs Lelijveld said.
‘‘It’s important the children have confidence.’’
Mrs Farquhar started a Give-a-Little page to help fund the team’s trip to Wellington for the first public screening of their short film.
- BY JOHN COSGROVE
