SCREAMING IN SILENCE

Screaming in Silence is a short film about a young deaf boy named Johnathan who grows up with his parent's constant arguing. He is not able to physically hear them, but when they yell, this causes a loud ringing in Johnathan’s ears making him to dig his nails into the palms of his hands hoping this will give him some sign of relief. Eventually this constant state of pain and fear makes johnathan finally work up the courage to actually speak and say to his parents, “Stop”. The theme of the story is, “Just because someone who’s deaf can literally hear you, doesn’t mean your words don’t hurt”. I’ve found this to be a prevalent notion between the deaf and hearing communities, especially in areas where the intelligence rate and acceptance of people who are different by the locals are significantly lower. The emotion of the film will be very dark and melancholy. It should reflect the child's growing pain over the years about the world he lives in and the differencing of opinions between his parents.

 

Johnathan is young and fragile. He is slender and seems to have no real muscular stature to him. He has taken his pain out on himself for several years so by the time we get to that final pain, his self-deprivation is no longer is enough. His mother, Brenda, is a beautiful woman in her late 30s to early 40s. Since the loss of their second child, shown in the first scene of the script, she has subtly taken to religion to mend her broken heart. She feels overly enthusiastic about her son, becoming oblivious to the pain he has been inflicting upon himself all these years. Tom, Johnathan’s father, took on drinking after the loss of their second child never fully get over it. Because of this, he has always pushed to make Johnathan “normal”. He doesn't make a huge effort to sign to johnathan and in turn, Johnathan has learned to read his lips rather than asking his father to change. Tom makes Johnathan go to a speech therapist in hopes that this will help his son be “normal”.

 

The images that come to mind when I think about this film are a lot of slow zooming to show growing tension and animosity, and a long view of the hallway to show the growing distance between him and his parents. I also want to show his hand movements, emphasizing aggressiveness and express his internal and external pain through imagery.

I want this film to be made because I think that “deaf” scripts have been very underrepresented in mainstream media. Until the film, A Quiet Place came out, I had never seen a major box office film showcase ASL as its primary language. Granted,   wrote this script before that film came to theaters, but I definitely use some of its stylistic choices for reference. I believe that parents who are both hearing and have a deaf child don’t always take into account that they might not be able to hear you but they can still see and feel your pain and these things still have an effect on them, whether it be positive or negative. And I believe people who are both hearing and deaf need to see this display.

 

 

I think people will want to see this film because it has rarely if ever been done. It has also never been seen by mainstream media markets and festivals. I think people are interested in opening up their minds to different cultures and communities and recognizing their hardships while being able to relate them to their own. People will be interested in the perspective of what it’s like for a deaf child born to hearing parents who don't and may never completely understand how he feels and his situation. I also think people relate to the fact that everyone is capable of and has felt pain; we may just express that pain we feel in different ways.

This will be my first major directing debut which will be weird for me since all the projects I’ve worked on have been as some form of the producer or written screenplays. But I think I have enough of the producer side in me to be able to pull a complicated idea such as this one. I would also like to incorporate more aesthetic shots while also experimenting with lighting and sound design, hoping to give an accurate depiction of what it’s like to be deaf. Though this, I hope to learn more about the deaf perspective and hopefully portray the deaf experience respectfully as a hearing person. I imagine the style of the film to have a more melancholy tone to it i.e. dark blacks, darker room tones, etc. Film similarities would be to ones such as: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and We Need to talk about Kevin. Both have very dark themes and the tonality expresses them.

 

I think my film will be unique because deaf screenplays are rarely created and the deaf perspective is rarely seen or shown and I want to change that. I also want to make sure you really feel as though your in his position in that you only hear what he does so you can resonate more with his character. However, the main challenges that I do foresee are mainly the location and the actors. I have already begun looking for both, having posted a casting call on SF Casting and have had several submission from people who are somewhat familiar with ASL.