Teresa Garratty: What it felt like to win the Ben Steiner bursary at Deaffest 2014!

Posted on May 28, 2014 by



This month I was lucky enough to win something called The Ben Steiner Bursary, which gives deaf film-makers an opportunity to make a short film. When I won the bursary, a lot people kept asking me how I felt and it was very hard to explain.

My go-to response was to stand there like a rabbit facing the lights of an oncoming heavy goods vehicle.

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So now that it’s sunk in a bit, I’d like to try and explain myself a bit better.

Winning the Ben Steiner bursary was like being on a roller coaster…

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….unless of course roller coasters make you want to vomit, in which case, it wasn’t like that at all. Great news for anyone who was sitting in the front row.

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Ok, maybe it was more like the X-factor….

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…but on a smaller scale…

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…with less singing…

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….and no Simon Cowell.

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OK. It was clearly nothing like the X factor.

Perhaps it would be best to explain as prehistoric man/woman once did….with mere simple/terrible drawings…? Here it goes….

While we were sat in the cinema, waiting for them to announce the winner, it felt like this…

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and then when they announced my name, it felt like this….

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Afterwards, people congratulated me and two things became very apparent…

Number one, I was the first ever woman to win the bursary.

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and number two, the finished film is going to be premièred at Deaffest’s 10th anniversary…..

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When the after party finished and I finally went to bed, I think I spent the whole night like this….

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In conclusion, I think it’s pretty safe to say that quite a bit of pressure comes with winning the bursary but for now, I’m counting this as a good thing and I’m feeling generally awesome. Ah ha! Yeah, that’s it.

Winning the Ben Steiner Bursary feels bloody awesome!

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So I’d like to say another huge thanks to everyone, especially Zebra Uno for providing the Ben Steiner bursary and I hope to see lots of you at Deaffest next year!

Teresa is a freelance film maker, photographer and full time cynic. At school, she was voted “Most likely to end up in a lunatic asylum”, a fate which has thus far been avoided. Her pet hates are telephones, intercoms and all living things.

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