2009
By May 2009, six different deaf youth groups had produced their first short film. These films were screened at the first official Yorkshire SignFilm Festival in the National Media Museum in Bradford. Many of the deaf youth involved gave short presentations about their film-making experiences and our Guest Speaker was Matthew Lewis, who you would recognise as Harry Potter’s friend, Neville Longbottom, in those films. He came to give a short speech about being an actor, starting at the age of 5. He also took loads of questions from the deaf young people at the Festival – about which car he drives, if he has a girlfriend, and how long it takes for him to memorise his lines.
The Festival was a great success with about 200 young people attending. Each of the film-making groups received a lovely award for their hard work. The films were all different – a few horror, a fantasy, a documentary and a drama – and ranged from 5 to 20 minutes long. There was also a selection of ‘Behind the Scenes’ footage from all the groups and interviews of the young people during the film-making process.
The youth who made the films in 2009 learned lots of different things, and had some mistakes, so they’re excited to do it again and make even better films for the Festival in 2010. Many who attended and hadn’t made a film are looking forward to getting involved and making their first film for next year’s Festival too.
Look through the photos and see if you recognise anyone – maybe in a few years, when they become more famous!
We had some great press in the local newspaper, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Click here to see the articles.
If you can watch video clips on your computer, click here to see some of the ‘Behind the Scenes’ footage.
May 19-20 at the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
(see http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/)
Young deaf people and school or college groups are very welcome to attend in May.
Films made by deaf young people aged 11-25 are welcome! They need to be posted to us by 27 April 2009.
If you want to make a film or just come to the Festival in May, please email us for more information – ysff@youthdeafinitions.org.
To download PDF 2009 YSFF Poster, click here.
To download PDF 2009 Press Release, click here.
More details of the Festival will be updated later.
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