In Garry Keane’s intimate and highly moving feature doc project, we meet four Deaf couples who tell their stories about how their love blossomed, in the process weaving a rich tapestry of Deaf experience over a period of 70 years.
As the synopsis of This is a Quiet Love stresses, “no words are needed between two loving hearts.” 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 film notes underline.
The award-winning pitch at Sunny Side featured two of the relationships, a mixed-religion couple who fell in love during the Northern Ireland Troubles even though they hailed from opposite sides of the religious divide, and the story of Deaf boxer Seán who must decide whether to fight, remove his cochlear implant surgically and therefore risk never hearing his partner and child’s voices again, or give up on his dream of succeeding in the ring. Another story will involve the London-based Cathy and Michelle, a Deaf LGBT couple living in London, which has a vibrant Deaf LGBT scene.
“I never saw people like me on TV or at the cinema, people who shared my language or had the same experience as I did,” said producer Herlihy during the Sunny Side pitch. “That’s a very isolating experience. And when, eventually, representation of deaf people started to appear in the media, there were stories about deaf people rather than by deaf people. And they didn’t reflect what was really liked to be deaf. But with this film I want to change that.”
“It’s 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,” Heffernan continued of the film, budgeted at €539,964. “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.”
Final delivery on the project is expected April 2024. In La Rochelle, producers Heffernan and Herlihy were looking to generate sales, international broadcast and festival interest. “With your support we want to reach broad audiences who are fascinated to dive into this unknown world,” Heffernan told the Sunny Side audience.
The project won the Global Issues pitch award June 20.
