The NXNE film line-up begins with the modern silent film La Voz de los Silenciados (The Voice of the Voiceless), which is inspired by actual events. Olga (Janeva Adena Calderon Zentz) is a deaf teenager from Central America, who travels to New York under the false pretence that she is attending a “Christian Sign Language School.” However, it turns out that the school is just a front for a criminal empire, who forces Olga to beg on the subway. Olga is forced to use her imagination to escape from these criminals and gain her freedom. The Voice of the Voiceless is a film that mimics what it is like to be deaf. While the plot of the film is completely silent, the film still features muffled sound effects, which is presumably what a deaf person like Olga hears everyday. While I get the point for including these muffled sounds in the film, they do get a little annoying after a while and the film might have been better if it was completely silent. For the most part, the audience is left to figure out the plot by the actions of screen, with there being no dialogue or subtitles, save for a quite enjoyable fantasy heist sequence in the middle of the film. There is much repetition within the plot of the film, which almost makes it seem that the story was trying to stretch itself to feature length and might have been better as a short. Voice of the Voiceless is also a very experimental film at times, which includes a sudden and disorienting full-colour dream sequence. Despite some issues, Voice of the Voiceless is still an interesting piece of modern silent cinema. 7 | FAIR Screenings:
-
Friday June 13, 6:00 PM – Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
