Success for British and International Deaf Filmmakers at Deaffest 2011

Deaffest, the UK’s only Deaf-led Film and Television Festival which celebrates the talents of Deaf filmmakers and media artists took place at Light House in Wolverhampton from 20 – 22 May, and saw attendances of over 2000 people with a diverse mix of Deaf and hearing filmmakers, media practitioners, industry organisations, students and the general public from across the UK and overseas.

The thirteenth Deaf Film &  Television festival to be held at Light House in Wolverhampton since 1998, the event attracts films directed and produced by Deaf filmmakers from the UK and all around the world including Ukraine, Ireland, France, Spain, Sweden, USA and China.

The highlight of the festival weekend was the Deaffest Film & TV Gala Awards which presented awards for the Best Drama, Best Documentary, Best Experimental Film and Best TV Programme. The red carpet event was hosted by Deaf British – Australian award winning filmmaker Nadia Nadaraja who has worked as a presenter for BSLBT programmes ‘Wicked’ and ‘Snapshot’. Entertainment was provided by sign language performer Ace Seyed-Ali Mahbaz. The winners of the Gala Awards were:

Best Drama: Samuel Dore for the film Chasing Cotton Clouds Best Documentary: Frank Seiefel for the film Ingelore Best Experimental film: Simon McKeown for the film All for Claire Best TV Programme: Caroline O’Neill for Wicked, Series 3, Programme 8

The launch of the festival also saw the premiere of the winning Ben Steiner Bursary film, Luke Starr by Stephen Collins. Stephen received funding at a competition during the 2010 festival to produce a film and has spent the last year working on the production ready for its screening at the 2011 festival. There were notable talks from Rich Warren of Encounters Bristol International Film Festival, who discussed how to get your film shown at a major film festival, and Louis Neethling, who presented Sign Media, an innovative and accessible online learning resource, which aims to break down communication barriers for Deaf media professionals. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK also donated a free screening of their latest animated adventure Tangled.

Deaffest is supported through Screen WM’s Investment Fund with funds from The National Lottery through the UK Film Council, and through the UK Film Council Festival Fund. It is supported by Light House, Wolverhampton City Council, Zebra Uno and University of Wolverhampton. For more info about the festival visit www.deaffest.co.uk