Synopsis
After the death of his fiancée’s daughter while in his care, a deaf man shuts himself off from the world. Haunted by memories, it is only through new friendship that he can learn to forgive, love, and reconnect.
Deaf Actor: Troy Kotsur
All Deaf characters are played by Deaf actors.
Sabrina Lloyd took both private and group sign language classes for three months to prepare for her role as Mary Callahan. She not only learned her character’s lines in sign language, but also the male lead’s lines in order to best perform her role.
Margot Kidder, Robert Hogan and Ashlyn Sanchez learned sign language for their roles.
Anthony Natale, the film’s lead, is also a sign language teacher. On his breaks from shooting, he could be found teaching sign language to many of the non-signing crew.
Lupe Ontiveros is the mother of two Deaf sons; she is an advocate for the rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals in Los Angeles and worldwide.
Real life husband and wife, Troy Kotsur and Deanne Bray, play a couple in the film.
The museum exterior scene takes place at the University of the Arts’ main building, Hamilton Hall. This is the original location of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Academy Award winner Joseph Renzetti painstakingly created the mesmerizing score. Renzetti composed equivalent to an opera in the 100 minutes of original score.
In the creation of the film, the filmmakers paid special attention to the sign language, making sure that the signing was visible in every frame.
Robert DeMayo, a Deaf actor and teacher, worked with the writer, director, Ann Calamia, for over a year transliterating the written English script into the visual American Sign Language. He took into account the background of all of the signing characters when choosing the type of sign language that each actor would perform. He also taught sign language to all of the non-signing actors.
I am adding the name of the actor “Troy Kotsur” here on the synopsis so the Advanced Search (with wrong settings) can locate it.
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