Latest / 2FM Mornings with Doireann Garrihy / Seán Herlihy & Anne Heffernan - 'An Grá Ciúin'

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Seán Herlihy & Anne Heffernan - 'An Grá Ciúin' · 2FM Mornings with Doireann Garrihy

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  S1: Kicking off yesterday. The next few days Mark Irish Sign
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  S1: Language Awareness Week in Ireland. And it also coincides with
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  S1: International Week of Deaf People, alongside awareness campaigns and increased
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  S1: efforts to recognise the rights of deaf communities. This week
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  S1: is a celebration of Irish Sign Language. My next guests
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  S1: have helped to create a beautiful celebration of Irish language
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  S1: in their film A Quiet Love or An Grá Ciúin. Sean Herlihy
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  S1: is a deaf broadcaster and interpreter, and Anne Heffernan, an
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  S1: award winning producer who will be interpreting for Sean through
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  S1: today's interview. Sean and Anne, you're both extremely welcome today.
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  S2: Thank you very much.
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  S1: So before we start, just for the listeners at home
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  S1: to understand our conversation a little bit more, Sean, you
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  S1: are deaf. But Anne, who is in studio will be
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  S1: interpreting using ISL and voicing your answers. So just to
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  S1: make that clear, for the listeners at home, we may
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  S1: need a little minute or two between answers. Um, so
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  S1: starting with you, Anne, is this something that you have
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  S1: done before?
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  S2: Um, yeah. Well, we often kind of communicate this way. Um,
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  S2: like obviously having, you know, professional interpreter is ideal, but
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  S2: I think because Sean and I have traveled around the world,
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  S2: you know, doing Q and A's and promoting the film,
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  S2: we've ended up kind of working together. So Sean would
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  S2: interpret for me if we had like an audience of
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  S2: international deaf people, and I'd interpret for Sean in a
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  S2: kind of hearing environment. So yeah, we work together quite
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  S2: well in that way. And Sean's just saying it's important
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  S2: that we have this kind of allyship kind of relationship together,
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  S2: because it means that there's access for everyone and we
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  S2: get that great communication, which is really important for us.
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  S1: And Sean, can I ask you about your deafness? Have
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  S1: you been deaf your whole life or was your deafness acquired?
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  S2: No, no, no, I was born deaf. Um, yeah. And
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  S2: I have grown up that way all my life. I
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  S2: have two deaf sisters as well who are older than me.
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  S2: And so yeah, and that's my, my family story.
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  S1: And when did you both meet?
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  S2: So Sean's just saying. Yeah. God, way back probably 2011, 2012,
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  S2: RT had a TV series called Hands On, which was
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  S2: a deaf magazine programme, and Sean was saying I was
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  S2: a presenter at the time, and Ann came in as
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  S2: a kind of a new runner, just out of college
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  S2: at that time. Back then, um, and Sean would have
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  S2: taught me the kind of basics of sign back then.
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  S2: And that's ever since then. That's how we started working
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  S2: together right up until now.
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  S1: And Sean, then when as someone who's born deaf, when
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  S1: do you start to learn sign language and how, how
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  S1: do family, I guess, row in behind and, and make
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  S1: sure that you are as fluent as possible from whatever age.
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  S1: If you can explain that to the listener.
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  S2: Yeah, it's a really good question. So Sean saying my
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  S2: parents are from a Gaeltacht area in the west of Cork. Um,
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  S2: so when I was born deaf and then my two
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  S2: older sisters who were, who were deaf as well, I
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  S2: actually learned sign from them. So I was kind of
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  S2: born into a signing environment, whereas my parents didn't sign,
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  S2: they had kind of maybe little home signs, their own
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  S2: ways of communicating. And then my younger sister is a
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  S2: hearing and she became an ASL interpreter. Learning sign from
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  S2: the three of us from her older siblings.
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  S1: We're here today celebrating Irish Sign Language Awareness Week, but
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  S1: also the film A Quiet Love. And you were both
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  S1: producers on the film. And can you tell me about
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  S1: the film? It follows the love stories of three couples
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  S1: through Irish Sign Language. Who are they and what is
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  S1: their story?
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  S2: So there are three incredible couples. We have John and Agnes,
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  S2: who are an older deaf couple, um, from the north.
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  S2: And they, you know, John is Catholic and Agnes is Protestant.
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  S2: And they, uh, I suppose, you know, Catholics and Protestants
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  S2: would have been segregated in the North at that time,
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  S2: but because there was only one deaf school in the region,
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  S2: they met, you know, by chance and by the virtue
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  S2: of the fact that they were both deaf and fell
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  S2: in love. And they have a 60 year incredible love
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  S2: story where they also talk about what it was like
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  S2: to be deaf during the troubles. And they had a
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  S2: few very close calls with bombs and shootings and things
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  S2: like that. So it's quite a fascinating insight into what
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  S2: it was like to be deaf at that time. We
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  S2: also have Sean and Dana. So Sean is a deaf boxer,
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  S2: and throughout the film, they're kind of wrestling with this
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  S2: really difficult decision about whether or not Sean will have
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  S2: surgery to remove his cochlear implant, which he uses to
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  S2: hear his hearing partner and so on, and so that
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  S2: he can get his professional boxing license, which is his dream,
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  S2: you know, and he's kind of supported by his family
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  S2: through that decision. And then our other couple, our third
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  S2: couple are Michelle and Cathy, who are, um, two mothers
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  S2: who through IVF have deaf and hearing daughters. And we
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  S2: hear all the story about their, I suppose, their struggle
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  S2: to have their children. But then the beauty and the
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  S2: challenges of raising deaf and hearing daughters. So the really nuanced,
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  S2: really lovely stories and there's something in each one, I think,
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  S2: that audiences have been able to relate to.
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  S1: Sean, your role on the film made you Ireland's first
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  S1: deaf film producer. Surely that was an incredibly proud moment
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  S1: for you.
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  S2: Yes. Sean saying it was a dream come true. Absolutely.
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  S2: When Anne approached me to be part of it. You know,
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  S2: there had never been an opportunity or a role model
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  S2: like that in the deaf community for me. So to
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  S2: have that opportunity was absolutely incredible. And Anne and I,
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  S2: our aim always at the start of the film, was
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  S2: that we wanted to give the other people in the
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  S2: deaf community opportunities. So there was 32 members of the
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  S2: deaf community involved, either in front of or behind the camera,
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  S2: which is an incredible achievement. This really incredible talent from
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  S2: the community. Seeing them be part of it was really special, too.
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  S1: How important was it for you to not only tell
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  S1: these stories, but to make it a portrait of love then? Anne?
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  S2: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Like that was, I suppose, part
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  S2: of the whole foundation of the film. It was one
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  S2: of the things that I had noticed from spending time
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  S2: with the deaf community and with John and Agnes, especially
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  S2: this beautiful way of communicating that that deaf couples had
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  S2: this eye contact that was there. You know, you have
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  S2: to look at someone and give someone your whole attention
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  S2: when you're communicating this touch to get somebody's attention. It
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  S2: just felt really, really romantic to me. And I think,
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  S2: you know, I always give the comparison of my husband, like,
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  S2: we could walk around the house all day and not
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  S2: look at each other. You know, you're shouting up the stairs,
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  S2: but when you look at that def communication and the
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  S2: way that, that, uh, that, that beautiful eye contact and
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  S2: that beautiful connection is there. It's so romantic. And it
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  S2: just felt like a great basis for this film.
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  S1: Was that so important for you as well, Sean? That
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  S1: subject matter and portraying it?
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  S2: Yeah. Sean saying absolutely. You know, we talked about, um,
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  S2: you know, these incredible def stories. They're so rich and
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  S2: we really wanted to kind of gather them in the
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  S2: right way. And our director, Gary, has an incredible visual
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  S2: style and knows that sign language is so visual as well.
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  S2: And that just really worked with his creative vision. So
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  S2: we wanted to create these really layered stories and these
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  S2: three couples, um, you know, we had always known that
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  S2: def stories had kind of stayed within the margins of
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  S2: the deaf community before, but they had these beautiful, joyful stories.
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  S2: We wanted to bring them out to a much broader audience.
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  S1: And the film has had an unbelievable reception. You've traveled
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  S1: across the world and you've won multiple awards for the production,
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  S1: if you don't mind. How does that feel? Are you delighted?
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  S2: Yeah. I mean, Sean saying we're absolutely thrilled. So to, to,
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  S2: really to, to, to see that the film kind of
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  S2: getting this success around the world has been incredible. So like,
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  S2: we can we won the global production award in Cannes
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  S2: initially to begin with. And then we were had the
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  S2: world premiere of the film in New Zealand at Doc Edge,
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  S2: which is an Academy Award qualifying festival there, and won
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  S2: one of the awards over there as well. And then
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  S2: at San Diego at the International Film Festival there won
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  S2: the audience Award for Best Doc, which was really special.
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  S2: So there's been loads since then. It's been it's been
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  S2: a bit of a whirlwind, but it's amazing.
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  S1: It's incredible. And Sean, I'm curious about the work of
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  S1: producing through ISIL. How easy or hard was it to
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  S1: convey a creative idea or direction or to, you know,
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  S1: convey the message that you wanted to convey?
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  S2: So Ann and I both, when we kind of discussed
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  S2: one of the things that was very important, that we
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  S2: would have inclusion and access for everyone on set. So
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  S2: whether it was hearing crew or deaf crew and the
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  S2: hearing crew went and did some ESL lessons through Wendy Murray,
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  S2: who was one of also one of the development producers
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  S2: on the series. And so they learned signs to help
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  S2: them communicate. That was really important for us. So everybody
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  S2: felt involved. And in the same way for the deaf crew,
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  S2: myself included, we had the ESL interpreters on set every day,
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  S2: and then we had like, let's say our hairdresser was deaf,
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  S2: our makeup artist was deaf. So we had this great
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  S2: sense of inclusion, and we were so proud that we
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  S2: were able to kind of achieve that goal from the start.
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  S1: What about the film sound then? It's told entirely through ESL.
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  S1: So for hearing viewers or those who maybe don't understand ISIL,
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  S1: what audio is featured?
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  S2: Well, there's a beautiful soundtrack in the film by Steven Shannon.
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  S2: And also, I mean, there are some hearing, um, contributors
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  S2: in the film, like Sean's partner and Michelle and Cathy's
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  S2: daughter as well. Um, but I think the fact that
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  S2: we have decided not to put voice over on the
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  S2: film really allows you to immerse yourself fully in the
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  S2: sign language and in following the characters as they're signing.
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  S2: And I think one of the best comments that we
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  S2: got when we were kind of at film festivals was
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  S2: that it was like an hour and a half of
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  S2: meditation because you literally immerse yourself fully. It's a really
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  S2: unique viewing experience. Um, and yeah, I mean, it's not
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  S2: a film that you watch while you've got your phone
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  S2: in your hand at the same time. You've got to
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  S2: be fully in it. And I think that's a really,
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  S2: really refreshing kind of way of enjoying a bit of
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  S2: creative work like this as well.
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  S1: Sean, does it feel great to be someone who I
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  S1: guess is showcasing, you know, that the barriers can be
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  S1: broken down for people within the deaf community, and you're
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  S1: showing that to, I guess, you know, people who are
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  S1: in the deaf community and those who aren't, that you
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  S1: can really anything is possible, um, with, I guess the
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  S1: right support around you.
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  S2: So Shaun saying. Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, when you
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  S2: compare it to other countries, like if you look at
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  S2: the UK or in America, like the UK, for example,
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  S2: they have this access to work scheme, which means that
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  S2: any deaf person who wants to work in any environment, um,
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  S2: once they've got a job, they have these supports there
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  S2: so they can apply for an interpreter through different access.
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  S2: A note taker in Ireland, we don't have that here.
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  S2: So if you get a job you have to kind
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  S2: of appeal to your producer or to your, you know,
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  S2: to somebody else in a senior position saying, can you
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  S2: see if there's somewhere you can apply for funding for
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  S2: access for me? Whereas now with this film, we're kind
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  S2: of really spreading a word and we're getting awareness and
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  S2: people are really saying, we want more of this, and
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  S2: we're hoping that it kind of creates more opportunities in
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  S2: the future.
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  S1: Well, I've no doubt it will. And, you know, you're
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  S1: a credit to your community. And thank you so much
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  S1: to both of you for coming in today, Sean and Anne.
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  S1: And this week is Irish Sign Language Awareness Week in
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  S1: Ireland and International Week of Deaf People. You can watch
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  S1: A Quiet Love or An Grá Ciúin on TG4 this Saturday at
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  S1: 9:30 p.m.. Sean Hurley and Anne, thank you so much
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  S1: and thank you so much for coming in today. Thanks
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  S1: a million.