Cambridgeshire Hearing Help have produced a short film (11 minutes) about one person’s experience of hearing loss, which they are linking to a competition for local schools to produce their own short film on the subject.
The mini documentary is about Andy Kirk from Cambridgeshire who talks about how being diagnosed with severe hearing loss as a teenager and having to wear hearing aids made him feel at the time. Sharing his sense of humour and observations he talks about how he now copes with profound hearing loss, both inside and outside of work.
The film was in conjunction with the launch of a Short Film Competition asking secondary schools in the county to come up with a 2-3 minute film on ‘Sounds You Would Miss If You Lost Your Hearing.’
All schools that enter will attend an Awards Ceremony in Cambridge in May, to promote Deaf Awareness Week, with a �1,000 first prize.
The aim of the short film competition is to raise awareness about hearing loss amongst young people and students.
Charity Director Frances Dewhurst said, “It is deeply worrying that whilst we have fewer cases of hearing loss through illness and noisy work environments, we are now seeing hearing loss caused by loud music – and the damage is done while people are young. So the work we are doing with young people is to bring home to them that it isn’t just a matter of helping older people but about doing something to protect themselves for the future.”
“We hope that using social media will tap into the networks that young people use and we can get the films seen by as many people as possible and you never know, some of our grannies and granddads may find themselves exploring YouTube for the first time!”
Closing date for entries is Friday 4 April. Judging will take place over two weeks, with shortlisted films announced on Wednesday 23 April.
Please remember all camera footage, stills, and music (even in the background) have to be cleared for copyright before use in your film. Good luck!