ZonaSur Cinema Club at The Ultimate Picture Palace

Recreating Sounds: Accessibility Against Exclusion

A programme centred on the experiences of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people, as well as issues of accessibility, representation, and inclusion. This event seeks to explore how cinema can represent the experiences of a Deaf actor, communication, and identity, inviting the audience to reflect on their own ideas about language, sound, silence, and accessibility.

Salsa (Dir. Antonina Kerguelén Román. Colombia, 2024. 14mins)
Margarita seeks liberation in a judgmental society when her path intersects with Liana, a deaf traveler, amidst the vibrant rhythms of congas and bongos. Through music, movement, and unexpected connection, Salsa explores freedom, identity, and the power of human expression beyond words.
Official selection at the Tribeca Festival, Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, and Leeds International Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention. The film also won the Audience Award at the Wicked Queer Film Festival.

Sordo (Dir. Marcos Martínez. Argentina, 2015. 1h 30mins)
Argentine documentary following a group of deaf actors rehearsing a play entirely in Sign Language. The film highlights the artistic power, humour, and cultural identity of the deaf community by exploring their creative process and daily lives, as the central film of the session. The screening would be followed by a Q&A with Ugo Marsili, a specialist in the field, followed by a conversation with the audience about the themes raised by the film, moderated by Lorena Briscoe.

Ugo Marsili is an Associate Professor in Multilingual Education and Inclusive Pedagogy and an accessibility consultant. His work has been developed in close collaboration with the Deaf community and is grounded in a commitment to meaningful inclusion based on listening to and learning from lived experiences. He established and led the teaching of British Sign Language at the University of Reading.