11 Jun Under the Stars Closing Night: A Celebration of the Magic in All of Us
BY M. SHANE JENKINS
cinéSPEAK-Under the Stars, the annual month-long Clark Park screening series, is underway. Audiences have been enjoying the weather, DJs, and free film screenings for the last few Friday evenings. If you haven’t made it out yet, there’s still time. Closing night of Under the Stars will feature a pair of inspiring films about teenage girls with disabilities thriving in the face of adversity.
After the opening DJ, the evening will begin with Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World, a short documentary directed by Julio Palacio. The subject of the film is Makayla Cain, a teenage girl with a rare form of autism that left her functionally non-verbal for the initial 14 years of her life. Over the course of the film, we see Makayla learn to use an electronic letter board that allows her to express her thoughts and emotions to the world for the first time, via an AI voice. Seeing the joy when Makayla is finally able to say “I love you” to her parents is an unforgettable experience.
Palacio calls his film “a powerful statement about human determination. To be able to showcase this type of emotion and take on that amazing journey is what makes this project special to me.”
Working with her therapist, Makayla tests out different AI voices on her letter board, comparing the timbres and tones, looking for the perfect sound to give voice to her many thoughts on life and love. She settles on “Portia,” a bright voice with a slight raspy quality that we come to think of as Makayla’s voice. Palacio intercuts these scenes with breathtaking footage of plants, animals, and the stars to help audiences visualize the universes that have opened up for Makayla.
The film was co-created by Palacio and Cain; Cain uses this opportunity to vocalize the complex insights that had been trapped inside her body for so long. The film is a testament to the ways that modern technology can give people with disabilities a better life than they might have had in the past.
“I want my film to challenge the perception of people with disabilities,” Palacio says. “There is magic in all of us. It might come in different forms but every person is special in their own way.”
After Makayla’s Voice, stay for a screening of the feature-length film OKTHANKSBYE, directed by award-winning Dutch director Nicole Van Kilsdonk. The film features the sun-splashed adventure of two deaf girls on a spontaneous road trip from their Dutch boarding school to Paris. Jamie (played by Mae van de Loo), the more timid of the pair, has an ailing grandmother who she desperately wants to visit. Jamie has a particularly close connection to her grandmother because they are the only deaf members of their family. Jamie’s adventurous new friend Imane (played by Douae Zine El Abidine) convinces her that the two of them need to make the 300-mile journey on their own, relying on their wits and budding friendship to get them there. Jamie is initially reluctant but gets caught up in the whirlwind of Imane’s outgoing nature.
Van Kilsdonk made a name for herself in her native Holland writing and directing films that tend to feature young people. “I try to make family movies that are about journeys or adventures,” she says. “But underneath there’s always something about the way they look at the world. I don’t think I could make a movie that’s just about ‘where is the treasure?’”
At every turn Van Kilsdonk invites us to see the world through the eyes of her deaf protagonists. We might fear that these 13- and 14-year-old children are in over their heads on their epic quest, but we also recognize that the girls are smart, determined, and resilient. We cheer for even the smallest of victories for the two.
The idea for the film came when Van Kilsdonk was filming an earlier movie at a school for the deaf. “I realized that I didn’t know anything about [the deaf community], that our worlds were so far apart. And it seemed quite strange that we’re so separate since we’re all human beings. So that inspired me to create this film,” she said.
Over the course of their journey, the girls encounter unexpected friends and foes, experiencing triumphs and setbacks, all while testing the bonds of their budding friendship. Their trip includes run-ins with a sketchy clown, a punk band and its fans, and some ableist teenage bullies on a train. It’s the adventure of a lifetime, made all the more poignant as we watch these two deaf girls navigate the challenges of being differently-abled in a world designed for the traditionally-abled.
Van Kilsdonk found her two leads at a school for the deaf. Neither had prior acting experience, which makes their performances all the more striking. “They have some sort of authenticity that’s really interesting to me,” Van Kilsdonk says.
In addition to the great acting, the ingenious sound design occasionally lets us experience the world as the girls hear it. In one particularly joyous scene, we see Jamie and Imane place their hands on a giant subwoofer at a punk show to feel the music, rocking out to the gnarly rhythms of The Earthwurms through vibration.
It was important to Van Kilsdonk (who is not deaf herself) to have OKTHANKSBYE be as authentic to the deaf community as possible. “First we got real deaf girls as the actors,” Van Kilsdonk says. “And we had deaf people read the script and work on the film to make sure we did not make mistakes. And we hired a brilliant deaf editor too.”
The director is excited to have her film shown at Under the Stars. “I’ve never been to Philadelphia,” she says, “And it’s so nice that it will be shown there. I hope the film is able to communicate some issues of the deaf community to the Philadelphia audience!”
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World and OKTHANKSBYE will screen on Friday, June 14 at Clark Park. Worldtown DJs will start spinning at 7 PM, and the films will begin at 9 PM. The event is free and registration is requested. Learn about the full Under the Stars series here.
Featured Image: Film still from OKTHANKSBYE. Courtesy of Labryint Film.
M. Shane Jenkins is a children’s novelist and musician, as well as a disability and LGBTQ advocate. He lives in West Philadelphia and has a BA in film from Temple University.
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