Film Festival Showcases Works by Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Filmmakers, March 18-20

Elizabeth Dena Sorkin, a second-year film student at Rochester Institute of Technology is deaf. In one of her four films to be shown at the Deaf Rochester Film Festival, March 18-20, Sorkin focuses on the misconception that all deaf people can read lips.

Sorkin and other deaf and hard-of-hearing filmmakers from our community and around the world will give a voice and a platform to their life experiences as they showcase their films in this first of its kind film festival in Rochester.

RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, along with RIT’s School of Film and Animation are co-sponsoring the event featuring the works of some of their student filmmakers, alumni and faculty. Short films, documentaries and children’s films produced by filmmakers from the United States and other countries will also be showcased.

The mission of the festival is to provoke dialogue about deaf cinema and to develop a better appreciation and understanding of deaf people. The festival also aims to inspire future generations of deaf and hard-of-hearing filmmakers.

The films will be shown at four different venues: Little Theatre, Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Strasenburgh Planetarium, NTID’s Panara Theatre and RIT’s Webb Auditorium.

“Rochester has been the home of deaf poetry and American Sign Language literature festivals, so it only seemed natural for us to host this festival,” says Patricia Durr, festival organizer and associate professor of social sciences and deaf studies at NTID.

“The idea stems from a community effort of those interested in deaf visual expressions and wanting to draw more attention to this art form.”

Jane Norman, professor in the communications studies department at Gallaudet University is the festival’s keynote presenter. Norman’s address is at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, in NTID’s Panara Theatre in the Lyndon B. Johnson Building. It will focus on the deaf cinema movement and tackle questions such as, are there aesthetic issues specific to deaf cinema? Does deaf cinema require certain content? Who, if anyone, should define this burgeoning movement?

New York Relay and Sprint are the other major sponsors of the festival. For more information about the film showings and ticket prices, visit www.ntid.rit.edu/DRFF