“Our film is a love story featuring four deaf couples signing the stories of how they met, fell in love, and the joys and complexities of their relationships,” Irish producer Anne Heffernan told the audience of change-makers at FIFDH Impact Days. “Together, these cinematic love stories weave a tapestry of deaf experience over a 70-year period and we believe it will make people think differently about what it means to be deaf in a hearing world.“
In the film, produced by the Deaf and hearing team of Sean Herlihy and Anne Heffernan, and directed by Sundance nominated director Garry Keane, we encounter four couples whose lives are enhanced and/or rendered more complex by the deafness of one or both partners. “This authentic film reflects the nuances of Deaf culture, the beauty of sign language and the complexity of Deaf relationships,” the project notes underline.
“When I was growing up, I never saw people like me on TV or at the cinema, people who had the same experiences as I did and shared my language,” producer Herlihy signed to the Geneva audience. “That can make you feel very isolated when, if representations of deaf people did start to appear in the media, they were often stories about deaf people rather than by deaf people. And with this film, I want to change that. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what language you use. Everybody can understand the human need to be loved and to love someone in return.”
Added Heffernan: “Sean and I have been working together since 2005 and in 2019 started collaborating with our director Garry Keane, whose films have premiered at Sundance and twice been Oscar Shortlisted. Together, we’ve produced four award-winning documentaries, exposing the inequalities experienced by Deaf people in Ireland. But the story goes a lot further than our own country.”
Together Herlihy and Heffernan explained how they had three main Impact goals “to take Deaf stories out of the margins.”
“We believe that if it’s seen by a broad mainstream audience, that this film can help to foster empathy and understanding and show that it is societal barriers and attitudes that cause more challenges for deaf people than their physical deafness.
“Deaf communities in many countries, Switzerland included, have not had their sign languages officially recognized, meaning there’s often no legal requirement to provide access to education, employment or healthcare in sign language. We have partnerships with two Deaf organizations in Ireland, but we’re looking for international partners who can use our film to push for sign language recognition and the implementation of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities to ensure fair and equal access for deaf people [across] the world. We strongly believe that the inequalities experienced by deaf people are exacerbated by the lack of representation of deaf people in the media.
“And we want to challenge our own industry to create more opportunities for deaf filmmakers so the deaf stories can become part of our collective experience. We’re also looking for funding to complete our film. If we can raise the final 30% of our budget, we can also draw down already secured impact funding to support deaf filmmakers.”
The pair pitched the project at Sunny Side of the Doc 2023 where it won the Global Issues pitch award.
“[This is a Quiet Love] is a warm and uplifting story. Even if you know nothing about deaf people, everyone knows a thing or two about unconditional love and the power it has to overcome just about everything,” said producer Heffernan. “So we’re looking for like-minded broadcasters, distributors, and funders who feel as passionately about this film as we do and to help us reach the broadest possible audience.”
“We want to take it much further and give audiences the opportunity to experience the world the way that each of our characters does, and realize that there are many different ways to be Deaf,” she continued. “Deaf people rarely, if ever, get the opportunity to tell their stories on a global stage. And we feel passionately that now is the time for this to happen. And we’re asking you to join us on this exciting adventure.”
