William Mager is an award-winning director of dramas and factual programmes, currently working in development for the BBC. Starting out as a new media trainee at the BBC in 2000, he went on to work on Top of the Pops, BBC Entertainment News and CBBC where he was a key part of the BAFTA-winning Xchange series.
After moving into television and film in 2003, William worked as a director on See Hear (Deaf magazine series), Watchdog and The Culture Show. In drama, after making a short film called The Waterfront for Channel 4, William went on to direct the multiple award-winning Stiletto, the UK Film Council funded Hands Solo and the YouTube hit Deaf Mugger. Last year also saw William’s second collaboration with Charlie Swinbourne, the mini-series The Fingerspellers, before collaborating on My Song.
- Still from “My Song”
My Song is a thought-provoking drama about Ellen, a young Deaf girl who learns sign language to try and find herself. Left out among her hearing family and friends, she learns how to sign her favourite song with the aim of performing in front of a Deaf audience at a ‘sign song’ event in London. There, she discovers that her journey to the Deaf world might not be as straightforward as she thought. A film about Deaf identity that asks whether it is possible to escape being trapped in the no-man’s land between the Deaf and hearing worlds.
My Song will premiered on the Friday night of Deaffest.
