Silence Speaks Volumes

In the short film, "The Silent Child," a young deaf girl named Libby lives at home with her family, who are all very busy and self absorbed. No one in the family can communicate with her, although at times they like to believe that Libby is following along while reading their lips. They finally decide to hire a specialist, named Joann, in order to help Libby learn how to communicate. Joann recognizes that the quickest and most effective way for Libby to learn will be through sign language. The conflict in the story comes in when the mother becomes adamant that there is no time for the family to learn sign language, and that the only sensible option is to send her to speech therapy to learn how to read lips and talk on her own, even though the instructor knows that this will be unsuccessful, she cannot fight against her mother's wishes.

One of the most powerful moments in this short film, is when we see a scene that is entirely from Libby's perspective. They are sitting at the dinner table, when suddenly we see things from Libby's eyes, in absolute silence. Her family members are all very engaged with each other, and from below, an angle shot at Libby's height, we see things with no sound, and suddenly realize with great impact how her daily life must seem. I would argue that this is one of if not the most important in the film, as it allows us, just for a moment, to be able to see things from Libby's perspective, and the silence speaks louder than any other technique the director or producers could have used to help us realize why this issue is important.

One of the most important aspects of any film is being able to establish quality characters with whom your audience can relate. Through scenes like the one mentioned above, they help establish a strong relationship between the audience and Libby, which sets the ending up perfectly when they reveal that this short film is to raise awareness for an important social issue. By helping the audience see things from Libby's perspective, we are more privy to help when the time comes for a call to action from the audience, and because we now understand what girls like Libby all around the world are going through, we know have the motivation and desire to do something to help.