DAWN OF THE DEAF (2016) Short Film: Rob Savage’s Awarding Winning Apocalypse Film

Dawn of the Deaf Short Film

Rob Savage‘s Dawn of the Deaf (2016) short film stars Caroline Ward, Haley Bishop, Radina Drandova, Stephen Collins, and Emily Bevan. Dawn of the Deaf‘s plot synopsis: “When a sonic pulse infects the hearing population, a small group of Deaf people must band together to survive. “

This has been a great week for short films. First we were given Neill Blomkamp‘s Rakka and now we have Rob Savage’s Dawn of the Deaf. Dawn of the Dead is as close to a short film masterpiece that I have ever seen. Run was memorable for numerous reasons but Dawn of the Dead exceeds it. Both films have strong third acts, each film is emotional, harsh, but Dawn of the Dead works on multiple levels through numerous storylines.

Spoilers Begin

The father and daughter storyline in Dawn of the Dead was the most surprising of the three. The unease and the look in the girl’s eyes I thought were from being deaf. I thought the girl was melancholy about not being able to communicate like her parents, who could both speak. The fact that the clever dialogue (written by Savage and  Jed Shepherd) could be taken two ways speaks to how well Dawn of the Dead was written.

The new love storyline had an authentic feel to it. Like the father / daughter storyline, it initially presented as something else. I thought the two girls were talking about being deaf in a hearing world. I had no idea what was really going on between the two of them until the final act of the film.

Spoilers End

Director Rob Savage had this to say regarding his choices on the narrative of Dawn of the Deaf, its components, and using London’s deaf community:

“Our aim was to create a genre film that would connect Deaf and hearing audiences in an engaging, thrilling way. Rather than retread the same narratives usually seen when dealing with disability, we wanted to create a tense story in which the characters’ ‘disability’ becomes their ultimate advantage over the hearing population.”

Watch the Dawn of the Deaf Short Film. Leave your thoughts on it below in the comments section. Readers seeking more short films can visit our Short Film Page, our Short Film Twitter Page, our Short Film Facebook Page, and our Short Film Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

Dawn of the Deaf Short Film