Friday 22 June 2012

Quiet Signs of Love



" Hi, my name's Belinda. I'm calling on behalf of my mother Pat, because she is deaf..." Those words are so ingrained in my vernacular, it still effortlessly rolls off the tongue. I've said that sentence countless times since I was old enough to have a conversation.


In the days before email, text and internet, my folks and the deaf community had faxes and a TTY in the home and for calls to a hearing person, it was us or the National Relay Service (NRS) interpreting. The NRS is a phone service available nationally for the deaf, or people with a speech or hearing impairment.  When I entered the workforce, I was often complimented on my phone manner, I should hope so, I'd literally had years of practice!


Quiet Signs of Love is a film released by Sydney based Production company IkonFilm and the NRS. And, it recently won an award for Best Short Film (hearing directors category) at the Rome Deaf Film Festival !

So go on, grab yourself a cuppa and settle in for 15mins or so. It's a gorgeous film, romantic and honest, including a soundtrack that focuses on vibrations for deaf audiences. The bit where she tells him he doesn't see her, brought tears to my eyes.

I firmly believe that when we seek first to understand each other, it's so powerful in breaking down barriers, misconceptions and prejudices.  I just love that this film is driving awareness, not only of Australia's National Relay Service but how a persons deafness does not equal a loss of independence or the ability to connect with others. And it certainly isn't the only thing to define that person by.

Belinda x

PS. Blogger formatting's a nightmare for the fastidious. These double line spaces between paragraphs are doing.my.head.in!!! If anyone knows the trick to getting these to do as they're told, pleeeeeeease share! arrrghhhh!

1 comment:

  1. WOW Billie, what an amazing short film, I was captivated. Thanks so much for the link! Bx

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment, so nice to hear from you. Belinda x

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