ROCHESTER’S DEAF COMMUNITY PRESENTS ITS FIRST DEAF ROCHESTER FILM FESTIVAL

Running the weekend of March 18 th - 20 th 2005, the Deaf Rochester Film Festival will present full length features, student films, documentaries and animation shorts, which address the Deaf experience and/or visually aesthetics of Deaf filmmakers.

The film festival will open on Friday, March 18 th at the Little Theatre with the showing of “Secret Love/Stille Liebe,” which stars internationally-known Deaf actress, Emmanuelle Labriot.

Experimental films and shorts by local, national and international filmmakers as well as student filmmakers will be shown on Saturday, March 19 th at Panara Theatre at NTID on the campus of RIT.  

Coming to Rochester for the film festival will be a special presenter, Dr. Jane Norman, a Gallaudet University professor and well-known expert on Media Studies and Deaf Cinema.

Dr. Norman has proposed that Deaf filmmakers may have a unique style of filmmaking carried over from sign language storytelling, camera shots or editing. Her presentation “Visualizing Deaf Cinema,” follows a luncheon at the Dyer Arts Center, and will take place in NTID’s Panara Theatre.  

The final festival day consists of Deaf films for children at Rochester’s Planetarium (RMSC) and Deaf related documentaries at NTID. Following a brunch in the Dyer Art Center, a panel of Deaf Filmmakers discussing “Reel Possibilities” on the future of Deaf cinema will be next. The Deaf Rochester Film Festival will close on Sunday afternoon with a viewing of the Scottish feature film “Dear Frankie,” which won the Highfalls’ Audience Award.