Having notably made his mark with The Writing in the Sky (awarded the 2013 IFTA Prize for Best TV Director), as well as with the multi-award-winning work Sharjah Safari (2022) and Gaza [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (in competition at Sundance in 2019), Garry Keane has now seen his new project, This Is a Quiet Love, pitched at the 34th international documentary market known as Sunny Side of the Doc (running 19 – 22 June in La Rochelle) where it was subsequently crowned the champion of the Global Issues Pitch. We sat down with the movie’s producers Anne Heffernan (Curious North Productions) and Seán Herlihy.

Cineuropa: What is This Is a Quiet Love all about?
Anne Heffernan: This feature film documentary project revolves around four deaf couples who tell us how they met and how they fell in love. The film weaves a tapestry of deaf experience over a period of 70 years. We hope that each of these couples and their stories will help turn the spotlight onto the day-to-day lives of deaf people on a larger scale.

Which characters did you opt for?
AH: The first couple consists of a Catholic man and a Protestant woman who fell in love when Northern Ireland was in the throes of war, at a time when the Catholic and Protestant communities were deeply divided. And despite everything, they stayed together and love triumphed.

Seán Herlihy: Given the religious backdrop, their families wouldn’t accept their love and they had to meet up in secret. With the second couple, Seán is a deaf boxer who’s trying to turn professional, but he’s also faced with obstacles, because he’ll need to have his cochlear implant surgically removed if he wants to fulfil his dream. His wife supports his decision, even if it means he’ll never hear his partner or child’s voices again. Theirs is also an incredible love story, a bond which overcomes all difficulties.

AH: The third couple are a young, mixed couple who’ve just had a baby which they’re bringing up in a deaf environment, making sure that he learns sign language and that he can belong to the world of deaf people.

SH: The fourth couple are a lesbian couple living in London. Their story reflects just how vibrant the deaf LGBT community really is, but it also charts their quest to have children by IVF. They have a deaf child and a hearing child, and their love is also tested by the different kinds of options the world offers deaf children and hearing children.

Above and beyond the universal theme of love, what is it that sets this project apart?
AH: The fact that it’s produced by a mixed deaf and hearing team. For a long time now, it’s been hearing people who’ve been telling deaf people’s stories, that’s why we want deaf people at the wheel this time round, both in front of and behind the camera.

SH (Ed. who’s deaf): It’s really important for the narrative, because deaf people have very rich stories to share and when hearing filmmakers are involved, something of that escapes them.

What stage are you at with the project right now?
AH: We’re in the advanced stages of development and we’ve found 60% of our funding, with Screen Ireland among our partners. We hope to enter into production at the end of the year and to deliver the film in summer 2024.

SH: At the same time the film was being produced, we also found funding in Ireland for a training course aimed at deaf people, to help them integrate the media field.

What kind of partners are you looking for at Sunny Side of the Doc?
AH: Enlightened broadcasters, an international sales agent and co-producers who are as passionate about the subject as we are, because we want this film to reach as wide an audience as possible. Here in La Rochelle, the market is fantastic, the project is attracting a lot of interest and we’ve already had some really productive meetings, so we’re really optimistic about the next steps.