The Silent Child

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.

Joanne (Rachel Shenton) is the new tutor for a young deaf girl named Libby. Her mother is concerned about her learning sign language and would rather have her lip-reading. This leads to a conflict with Joanne who starts teaching the girl sign language.

This is an Oscar winning short. It's actually a very compelling two thirds of a movie. Shenton and the little girl are amazing together. It's emotional and it has a message. This would make for a nice stepping stone to a full length movie.

"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.

'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 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.