Films made mainly by deaf people but not necessarily only for the deaf will be showcased for the first time in Hong Kong this weekend.
Featuring sign language, with subtitles for those who do not under stand it, the entries in the first Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival include the first deaf films to be made locally.
Several groups, including City University's school of creative media and the Hong Kong Federation of the Deaf, organised a workshop in May - and the six local films are the fruits of this event. Some of the other 25 films, like French documentary Le Pays des Sourds, are world-famous in the genre.
Veteran artist and writer Gus Mok Chiu-yu says deaf people consider themselves linguistic minorities with their own culture, and the festival aims to shed light on their lives.
'In fact deaf films have been made in places like the UK and US for many years. It was only a matter of when Hong Kong began,' he said.
While some films in the festival highlight discontent at discrimination against the deaf, 'some are a sheer celebration of their deafness, and there are also some which treat the films as any other films, running on themes like romance, sci-fi and crime', Mok said.
