The Silent Child

"The Silent Child," Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton - A beautiful film with an important message about how deaf children need support and assistance in life and in school in order to develop fully to their potential, and the serious negative consequences that lack of support can have. I found this film to be quite touching. Beautifully directed, acting was phenomenal. Rachel Shenton should be a star. This is my personal pick for the live-action short film Oscar.

I watched this in a sign language class at my college. I've always wanted to communicate well with deaf people and this film shows why that is so important.

The feelings of loneliness expressed by the young actress are true to life. Many deaf ones cannot communicate with the general public, not because they don't want to, but because no one understands them. This film captures that and provides a powerful message why we need to try harder to include the deaf community by trying to communicate with them. The Silent Child is an amazing and emotional film that needs to be seen. It's realism is outstanding and it's message compelling. Thoroughly deserved the Oscar.

The mother was deaf in ways of her own, wasn't she? A touching story, beautiful cinematography, and a lovely pair of actors in the social worker and deaf child (Rachel Shenton and Maisie Sly), make this a good short, even if it is a little heavy-handed.

'THE SILENT CHILD': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A 20-minute short film about a four-year-old deaf girl, who's assigned a social worker to help her learn sign language, but her skeptical parents are highly resistant to it. This short was directed by Chris Overton and written by Rachel Senton. It's well made, but it's also quite depressing and frustrating at times too. The film deals with some annoyingly bigoted parents, that you learn to really dislike throughout the short (or at least I did). I also learned to really care for the young deaf girl though. It's well made and insightful too.

I must admit up front that I am not at all impartial in my ability to review "The Silent Child". Because I am the parent of a deaf daughter and am very acquainted with the subject matter in the film, the picture had a HUGE impact on me and I found myself crying during portions of the short. Even if perhaps I am not 100% impartial, the film earned a nomination for Best Live Action Short from the Oscars and I am rooting for it to take home the statuette--because of the quality of the film and because its message needs to be spread far and wide.

The story is about a cute little girl named Libby who lives in England. Her family is very well off and Libby is about to begin school. However, there is a problem...Libby is profoundly deaf. Because of this, a social worker has been assigned to work with the child. Soon it becomes apparent that the family (the mother in particular) want some miracle to occur...for Libby to hear and talk, though this just is very very unlikely. Plus, with the family refusing to learn sign language and just hoping all works out, things look pretty bad for Libby...even after she begins to blossom and open up during the time she works with the social worker.

The themes of this short are how woefully inadequate the school systems are to handle the needs of a deaf child and well as how woefully inadequate many parents of deaf kids are to be parents. Everything I saw in the film seemed familiar to me...such as the fact that the vast majority of deaf kids have parents who never learn to communicate with them and how isolated deaf children can be. While the problem in the US is not quite as severe as it is in the UK (here we have generally had little difficulty getting interpreters and other assistance with our daughter due to her disability), it still hits quite close to home. And, like Libby's family, I've known families who simply refuse to do anything to admit that their child needs remediation.

Overall, extremely well made, insightful and sad in many, many ways.