Oscar winners Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton to present award-winning film The Silent Child at Broadway Cinema as part of Deaf Awareness Week 2018 short film showcase
Broadway Cinema will be welcoming Oscar winners Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton on Tuesday 15 May for a special screening of a programme of short films depicting the representation of Deafness - which will include their Academy Award-winning short film The Silent Child.
Directed by Chris Overton, The Silent Child centres around a profoundly deaf four year-old girl called Libby (played by profoundly deaf actress Maisie Sly) who is born into a middle class family and lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her the gift of communication. When fresh-faced social worker Joanne (Rachel Shenton) arrives, we see Libby transform as this once withdrawn four year-old suddenly feels connected to the world, and Joanne and Libby's relationship blossoms. As well as starring in the film, actor Rachel Shenton also wrote the screenplay for this award-winning short, drawing from her own experiences as the child of a parent who became deaf.
The Silent Child won the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards in March 2018, making headlines around the world when writer Rachel Shenton gave her acceptance speech using British Sign Language (BSL).
The Encounters: Deaf Shorts Showcase Programme forms part of Broadway’s Silent Voices film season, supported by Nottingham Together and Nottingham City Council, to mark Deaf Awareness Week 2018. Deaf Awareness Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness of Deafness and hearing loss faced by 1 in 6 people in the UK.
The screening will have Captioned Subtitles, and will be followed by a BSL-signed panel discussion with Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton, discussing the making of their film and its success.
The Encounters: Deaf Shorts Showcase Programme will take place at Broadway Cinema on Tuesday 15 May at 7.45pm.
For more information and to book tickets please contact Broadway’s box office on 0115 952 6611, or visit the Broadway website
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