August 22, 2018
The first ever Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival (SHIDFF) to take place soon!
We shared the news last December, that Deaffest Founders & Directors Nikki Stratton and Marilyn had flown over to Shanghai, where they worked in partnership with Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival (SHIDFF) to organise their first ever film festival.
Over the past year, the relationship between Deaffest and SHIDFF has flourished as we have worked closely with SHIDFF’s Founding Director Zheng Xiaosan (Sam Zheng) and Shanghai Open University’s consultant Dr. David James. The SHIDFF’s team, including Festival Events Coordinator Chen Linglin (Celine), have worked so hard in organising their festival and it is our great pleasure to announce that the festival will take place in Shanghai from 21st September to 23rd September 2018.
The host of SHIDFF 2018 is Xiaoshu Alice Hu who is deaf and is a hip-hop dancer, actress and graphics designer. Originally from Shanghai, she studied at the University of Fine Arts in Shanghai and now resides in Vienna, where she is known for her work as a staunch advocate for social inclusion in her role as Program Innovator for the MyAbility Social Enterprise Company.
Nikki Stratton and Marilyn Willrich will be attending the festival and are very excited to experience all the festival has to offer, meeting new faces and exploring the talents of the filmmakers, visual and performing artists that will be showcased there.
Open to people of all ages, SHIDFF will have film screenings, an art and photography exhibition, filmmaking workshops, panel discussions, an information fair and a Gala Awards ceremony. For more information about SHIDFF: http://shidff.org/
We will post more news after the festival to let you know how it went!
Zebra Access to launch the first ever mini Deaffest, Deaf Film & Arts festival in Cornwall.
The first ever Cornwall Mini Deaffest 2018 will be taking place in one of Cornwall’s biggest towns, St Austell on Saturday 20th October 2018. The pop-up festival has been set up to give the local Cornish Deaf Community an opportunity to get to know about Deaffest and to explore what the festival has to offer.
“It is difficult for people who live so far away to come along to Deaffest, so we thought ‘why not bring Deaffest to them?’. This pop-up festival will be a taster of what we are about and, most importantly, will give people an opportunity to learn and experience what we have to offer.” – Zebra Access and Deaffest Co-Director and Co-Founder Marilyn Willrich
Run by Marilyn Willrich and a team of Cornish Deaf volunteers, the festival will include film screenings, workshops, a craft market, entertainment and much more.
The festival will take place at St. Austells College, Tregonissey Road PL25 4DJ from 10am to 6pm with a £1 admission fee. The festival will continue into the evening at St. Austell Brewery, 63 Trevarthian Road PL25 4BY and the evening admission fee is £10.
“Will the Cornwall Mini Deaffest be a one off or a biennial festival? Who knows! We hope to run the festival again in the future, so keep an eye on our news!” – Marilyn Willrich
For more information about the festival and to buy a ticket please contact info@zebra-uno.com.
Earlier this month we shared that our Deaffest 2017 promo had gotten through to the final round for Best Advert/Trailer at the Hothouse Theatre’s Nottingham Film Festival 2018. We’re pleased to announce that it won!
Huge thanks to the audience who voted for our clip at the festival.
Deaffest 