Review: Deaffest 2012

For the first time in five years, Charlie Swinbourne went to the UK’s Deaf film and television festival Deaffest as a journalist rather than as a filmmaker. He reviews the festival and this year’s batch of films.

Wolverhampton might not seem like the obvious place for a Deaf film and television festival, but with a historically Deaf-friendly local university, there’s a high proportion of Deaf people living, working and studying in the city.

Once a once a year, this gets pushed to another extreme as film fans and film makers gather for Deaffest, which was held at The Lighthouse media centre between 25-27 May. During the weekend, you can barely walk down a street without meeting another Deaf person from a different part of the UK. This year I met people from Preston, Derby and Manchester, all before I’d even reached the venue…

[to read the rest of this review at Disability Arts Online, click here: http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/Deaffest-2012]

The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, training and consultancyDeafworks, provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Look, Smile Chat campaign, and the National Theatre’s captioned plays.