Two couples – screenwriter and actress Rachel Shenton with director Chris Overton, and producer Rebecca Harris with assistant director Tom Turner – accompanied the short film The Silent Child, winner of this year’s Oscar, to Karlovy Vary. Their introduction and discussion after the film in the People Next Door category devoted to heroes with handicaps was simultaneously interpreted into sign language.
The touching story of deaf five-year-old Libby was created as a call to give hearing-impaired children better access to education. “It’s an important topic. The film gives a voice to people who don’t have one,” said Rachel Shenton, adding that it is also a story close to her heart. Her father spent two years of his life deaf after losing his hearing during chemotherapy. Shenton then learned sign language and is now a patron of Britain’s National Deaf Children’s Society. “I spent years organising campaigns, lobbying in parliament and signing petitions, but nothing has had a great an impact as this film,” she said about the effect of the Oscar win.
In the film, she played the leading adult role. The child lead was given to small, talented Maisie Sly. “Maisie is deaf herself and proudly so. Her family looks quite a bit different than the one in the film. They even moved to a place where their child would have even greater support. A lot of parents don’t know what to do with deaf children, however,” explained Overton.
