Greetings,
It’s been a while since our last post but we are back, with plenty of exciting news to share!
Directors of Deaffest, Nikki Stratton and Marilyn Willrich have been busy, even with the office being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keep an eye on our website and social media to see what they have been up to!
We are still working from home but you can get in touch with us at: enquiries@deaffest.co.uk
Deaffest will be returning in 2022, we will be announcing the dates in the near future.
Keep an eye on our website and social media!
Deaffest 2019 returned and left in style with a variety of international artists showcasing their amazing talents for the theme: ‘ Share Your Story‘.
View the Winners of Deaffest 7th Film & TV Awards 2019.
At Young Deaffest 2019, we announced 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place for the Art Competition, view the top fifteen entries here. And Young Deaffest 2019 Film Award went to ‘Bad Girl’ produced by young people from a deaf school in the Czech Republic.
We would like to say a big thank you to those involved for supporting Deaffest 2019.
Meanwhile, if you have any feedback about Deaffest, please do let us know at enquiries@deaffest.co.uk.
Should anyone wish to view any of the Deaffest’s photos from our website and Flickr, please use the website link (i.e. www.flickr.com/photos/_deaffest_/albums) where the photographs are available for viewing purposes only.
All Deaffest photos should not be downloaded and/or used without our prior permission.
The photos are not for sale or for publicity use, other than by Deaffest.
We are thrilled to be one of the partners for the Creative Black Country’s new art and culture project Shine A Light.
Creative Black Country is one of the organisations to have been awarded £200,000 by the West Midlands Challenge Fund to create an inclusive art and culture project linked to the Commonwealth Games. The funding was made possible through a collaboration between Olympic legacy funder Spirit of 2012 and Birmingham 2022.
Among Zebra Access and Deaffest, other partners include Deaf Explorer, Black Country Touring, Disability Arts in Shropshire (DASH) and Deafscope.
Shine A Light is an inclusive project that will be accessible for d/Deaf, hearing, disabled and non-disabled participants. The performing arts project will focus on the people of the Black Country and through a variety of live taster activities and workshops using mime and theatre, they will tell the stories of local people.
The participants involved in the taster activities will have the opportunity to get involved in regular workshops which will culminate in a touring performance. New work, films, performances and more will be shared during the Birmingham 2022 cultural programme, an arts festival running from March to September 2022.
We look forward to getting involved in this fantastic project and to contributing in supporting and developing the talents of creative deaf people over the next 2 years.
We will keep you updated with any news and additional information.
We recently shared with you news of us hosting the HERE/ NOT HERE watch party and the live online BSL-interpreted panel event with Film Africa. We hope those who got involved enjoyed themselves!
It was our first time co-hosting a live streamed event and you can tell from our faces in the photo below how focused we were! Although we were ‘invisibly’ involved, we had a great time watching the panel event from the comfort of our own homes.
The panel discussed various topics regarding HERE/ NOT HERE which gave us an insight into the making of the film, the form of communications used, the process of working together as a team and much more.
“We were thrilled that this live event went so well and proved to be very popular with our audience. We hope you all enjoyed gaining an insight into the making of HERE/ NOT HERE. Deaffest continues championing Deaf Films and Arts and we will endeavour to potentially launch further live Facebook events in the future. So, please stay tuned/ signed-up to our mailing list for updates.” – Founders and Directors of Deaffest Nikki Stratton & Marilyn Willrich
We would like thank everybody involved including Film Africa, the panellists – director Bim Ajadi, writer Jonzi D, cast member Catrina Nisbett, Visual Vernacular consultant Brian Duffy and moderator David Ellington as well as the audience and those who sent in their questions.
If you have not yet seen HERE/ NOT HERE you can view it here.
