Project Detail

Speaking in Silence

Synopsis

SPEAKING IN SILENCE gently explores the experience of Selective Mutism from within. Selective Mutism is an anxiety disorder, through which the sufferer is unable to speak in many social settings. Extending far beyond shyness, the silence becomes an insurmountable wall to the outside world. A wall built on fear.

Told from the filmmaker’s perspective the documentary forms a time traveling poem-come-warning of the challenge to agency faced in the condition. The story is addressed to Saarah, a young Londoner struggling with the shifting challenges of mutism as she moves into adolescence.  A fellow voiceless soul that the filmmaker encountered just in time. 

Details

Year
2021
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
14 min 5 secs
Format
Digital
Director
Zoe Tweedy
Producer
Brian Henry Martin
Executive Producer
Lisa Marie Russo
Editor
Mike McKnight
Screenwriter
Zoe Tweedy
Director of Photography
Zoe Tweedy, Monika Jastrzebska
Composer
Score Draw Music
Principal cast
Zoe Tweedy, Saarah Bedekar

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Main character from The Things We Don't Say lying on the ground, looking contemplative The Things We Don't Say

Director: Ornella Mutoni

Year: 2024

A group of young adults born during or just after the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi people gather to find the courage to break a powerful taboo. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world providing specialist counselling for children conceived through rape, who number 10,000 across the country. Here, course leader Emilienne, a mother, therapist and genocide survivor, helps the group to imagine a future free from family secrets and societal stigma. In a circle of supportive peers, they tell their individual stories and face their struggles together, in the hope their participation will advocate for others facing similar trauma. Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024 NY African Film Festival 2025

Frank Zappa reads at The Nova Convention in New York City NOVA '78

Director: Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias

Year: 2025

NOVA '78 resurrects the legendary Nova Convention, the groundbreaking three-day gathering held in New York in 1978 to celebrate William S. Burroughs and the artistic revolution he inspired. Built from newly restored, previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Howard Brookner, the film captures extraordinary performances and intimate backstage moments featuring Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and many other defining voices of the era. More than a concert film or historical record, NOVA '78 is an immersive time capsule of a fleeting moment when literature, music, art and radical ideas collided to reshape contemporary culture.

Franco, Ale, and Benji walking down Leith Walk after rehearsal. When Cumbia is On

Director: Maria Paz Gonzales

Year: 2024

When Cumbia is On follows three South American musicians and traces the sound of cumbia music through the streets of Edinburgh, asking whether this rhythm is what lets them build a sense of belonging in a foreign land.