Maine Deaf Film Festival Hosts Nepalese Guests to Highlight International Deaf Culture

The Second Annual Maine Deaf Film Festival proudly returns to the University of Southern Maine Portland Campus on Saturday, May 22, 2004, and is honored to announce the arrival from Katmandu of two special guests, producer Krishna Prashad Shrestha and author Dev Raj Gurung. In addition, the daylong festival will feature over 40 other international films from Deaf writers, directors, producers and actors.

(PRWEB) May 9, 2004 --Producer Krishna Prashad Shrestha and screenwriter Dev Raj Gurung will travel more than 7,200 miles to attend the second annual Maine Deaf Film Festival hosted by the University of Southern Maine on Saturday, May 22. The two will be on hand for the first U.S. screening of their award-winning film, "Golden Rays," a short film about Nepalese deaf culture.

The daylong festival will include over forty international films by Deaf writers, producers, directors and actors from a number of European and Asian countries. Highlights include: a spoof of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs," called "Reservoir Wolves," that proves wielding a gun while signing is feasible. Other films include "Skye" a 70s style musical complete with hipsters, funk music, and disco; and a youth-oriented film called "Alice and the Aurifactor," in which Alice confronts an evil sorcerer bent on world domination.

The event is co-sponsored by the USM Linguistics Department and the USM American Sign Language Club, with special financing from the USM Board of Student Organizations and a variety of local Deaf community groups. Event organizers include USM Lecturers Guillaume Chastel, Roxanne Baker, and Brenda Schertz of the Linguistics Department, and David Crespo, who works locally with the Deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Organizer David Crespo explains, "These films are all subtitled in English, since sign language differs from country to country, and even within countries there are different variants. The event brings to Maine films from Japan, Australia, France, Norway, Israel, India, and the U.S., allowing the deaf community the first opportunity to see many of them."

The festival will be held in two sessions from 1-5 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. on May 22, in the Science Building on the USM Portland Campus. Tickets are $10 per session or $15 for both, if purchased before May 20. Ticket prices for students, senior citizens, and children ages 6-17, are $7 for one or $12 dollars for both sessions, if purchased before May 20. Tickets are available at the USM Woodbury Campus Center Student Involvement Desk, by phone through the Maine Center on Deafness at 797-7656 or 1-800-639-3884 (voice or TTY), and by mail at DFF c/o ASL Lab, 68 High St., Portland ME. 04102. Checks should be made payable to ASL Club Deaf Film Festival.