Maine Deaf Film Festival, now four days long, coming up next week

Screen shot from "The Hammer," a film based on the life of deaf collegiate wrestler and UFC fighter Matt Hamill. (Photo courtesy of Maine Deaf Film Festival)

Here’s another Portland area film festival to add to your calendar (click here for my last film festival announcement, which includes a list of many other film festivals calling Portland home): The Maine Deaf Film Festival.

This year’s festival covers four days, running from next Wednesday until the following Saturday.

The festival is run by the University of Southern Maine’s American Sign Language Club, and is now in its 10th year. Here’s a description of the four-day event as provided by the club:

This student-run event showcases innovation and creative talent within the realm of film and video, by and for the deaf community, in America and beyond. Our mission is simple: Provide a platform for people to learn about, appreciate, and celebrate deaf culture, issues and art. All selected films are written, produced, created and performed by deaf and hard of hearing individuals and film production companies.

This year boasts, for the first time ever, a four-day event: Wednesday, where we showcase local and global filmmakers’ work. Thursday, we feature the best of our previous years’ films. Friday night, we share a blockbuster hit, “The Hammer.” Finally, on Saturday, we host an all day event showing variety of films, including several featured films and guest speakers.

Among the films being promoted in this year’s festival are “Signing On,” about the country’s only breast cancer support group for deaf women, and “Deaf Jam,” about a deaf teen’s entry into the world of spoken word poetry. For a full schedule of films and forums, click here.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.