The cinema is a powerful space that can connect audiences with new worlds and perspectives, celebrate and spotlight underrepresented stories, and challenge harmful prejudices and misconceptions.
Belmont Filmhouse has curated a Deaf Awareness Season to celebrate this year’s Deaf Awareness Week which is taking place from 2nd to 8th May. Deaf Awareness Week is about the wider Deaf community sharing their stories of empowerment and identity, and the theme for the 2022 edition of Deaf Awareness Week is Deaf inclusion—to improve the visibility of Deaf people.
Charlotte Little, a deafblind access consultant working in the film exhibition sector in access and inclusion for disabled and Deaf audiences, has curated a series of screenings for this season:
Encounters: Closer Together - Fri 06 May 18:30
Encounters is the UK’s leading short film, animation, and virtual reality festival. Encounters provides an international platform for celebrating talent and innovation in short film, animation, and virtual reality.
To celebrate Deaf Awareness Week (2-8 May) Encounters Film Festival presents a programme of shorts featuring deaf talent in front of and behind the camera, with the aim of celebrating and normalising onscreen D/deafness.
Sound of Metal - Sat 07 May 17:30
Metal drummer Ruben begins to lose his hearing. When a doctor tells him his condition will worsen, he thinks his career and life is over. His girlfriend Lou checks the former addict into a rehab for the deaf hoping it will prevent a relapse and help him adapt to his new life. After being welcomed and accepted just as he is, Ruben must choose between his new normal and the life he once knew.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A hosted by Charlotte Little, who will be joined by speakers Jamie Rea and Doug Leiper to discuss Deaf representation in cinema.
Jamie Rea is a Deaf artist and producer, raised in Northern Ireland and living in Glasgow since 2015. His first language is British Sign language (BSL). He was a member of the first cohort of students in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BA Performance in BSL and English, graduating in 2018. He has collaborated with cultural organisations across England and Scotland including National Theatre of Scotland, BUZZCUT, Take Me Somewhere, Raw Material and Solar Bear, as a BSL consultant (including embedding access, hosting and promotion), workshop leader, and performer.
Doug is Deaf and a long-time activist in disability rights and equality mainly in the area of deaf employment and access having been both activist and advisor to trade union and local government. He is also a long-term member of Singing Hands, a North East Scotland based sign sing performing group having been with them since 1997.
A Quiet Place II - Sun 08 May 18:15
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
On top of the films curated by Charlotte Little, we will also be showing Oscar-winning CODA on:
Fri 06 May 20:35
Sun 08 May 15:00
CODA
Ruby is the only hearing member of a deaf family from Gloucester, Massachusetts. At 17, she works mornings before school to help her parents and brother keep their fishing business afloat. But in joining her high school's choir club, Ruby finds herself drawn to both her duet partner and her latent passion for singing.
Accessibility is at the heart of what we do at Belmont Filmhouse. We have several captioned screenings on each of our programmes, and we host a BSL-supported screening at the end of every month. For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.
All tickets cost £5 and can be booked by selecting the film titles below or in-person at the Box Office or call 01224 343500
Deaf Awareness Week at Belmont Filmhouse is supported by the Weston Cultural Fund.