After participating in more than 100 festivals and receiving more than 50 awards, the short film Sorda (deaf woman), starring Deaf actress Miriam Garlo, has been nominated for the Goya Awards 2023 for best fiction short film. The Goya Awards are Spain's most prestigious film awards.
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| Miriam Garlo in the short film Sorda (photo: Nexus Creafilms) |
The Short Film Sorda
The synopsis of Sorda, with a running time of 18 minutes, is as follows:
Ángela is deaf and Darío is hearing. They are a couple and have six chickens, four dogs, a vegetable garden and many communication problems. Now they also want to have a child.
It is a brief synopsis but it directly presents all the topics around which the plot of the short film is based: the relationship between deaf and hearing people, a natural setting in Molina de Segura in Murcia, and a woman's desire for motherhood. The script was written by Eva Libertad, who is also one of the directors together with Nuria Muñoz, who was inspired by Miriam Garlo's close experiences, as she is her Deaf sister in real life. The theme of motherhood was also discussed together and based on other well-known cases.
The one-minute trailer does not show much about the story, as is usually the case with short film trailers, but it does give a glimpse of good filmmaking:
It seems that one of the most appreciated features of the short film is the use of sound to express the protagonist's deafness, as in other films silence is used as an expressive tool. The critics also highlight that it is a visually beautiful film, its originality and the good representation of the discrimination that the protagonist suffers as a deaf woman, intentionally or not, and with which deaf viewers can easily identify and hearing viewers can also empathise.
At the time of writing, Sorda has been selected for 105 festivals, of which 31 have been international festivals, and has won 54 awards, 16 of them international. The awards have been of all categories: Best Short Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Audience Award and Best Actress for Miriam Garlo.
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| Showing the award of the Malaga Film Festival, Silver Biznaga Award from the audience. From left to right: Nuria Muñoz (director), Miriam Garlo (actress) and Eva Libertad (director and scriptwriter). Photo: murciaplaza.com |
Who is Miriam Garlo?
Miriam makes no secret of the fact that she is Deaf, she says so in every interview, in every biography you can read about her on the Internet. However, this has probably not always been the case, as Miriam was born hearing and her deafness began at the age of seven as a result of medication to treat a health problem. In the following video, posted on her Instagram account, Miriam talks about the gradual process of identifying herself as a deaf person (Spanish Sign Language and Spanish captions):
Miriam is passionate about art. She graduated in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she also obtained a Master's degree in Art, Research and Creation. She has done some painting exhibitions, although it seems that in recent times she has been getting more and more into the world of theatre and film acting, highlighting, in addition to the aforementioned short film Sorda, two theatre projects: The Meerkat's Perspective (La perspectiva del suricato) and Silence (Silencio), of the latter we can see a video with fragments of her performance:
Although she appears to lead a peaceful life in her orchard in Molina de Segura (Murcia, Spain), with her dogs and chickens (she declares herself a vegetarian and only eats eggs from her own chickens), her activity is, on the whole, intense. In addition to the short film, plays and other future projects (a 90-minute feature film, also with the same directors, to start shooting in 2024, rumoured to be titled "Ángela en el mundo"), Miriam also completed studies in Communicative Mediation and qualified as a Sign Language Teacher, gives lectures and courses, and does not hesitate to get involved in feminist activism.
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| Miriam Garlo in her vegetable garden with her dogs, who also participated in the short film Sorda (photo: javier Lorente / La Opinión de Murcia) |
Goya Awards Nomination 2023
The short film Sorda was finally nominated for the Goya Award 2023 in the category of Best Fiction Short Film, whose ceremony will be held on 11 February 2023. The competition has a very high level, as several of the short films in the competition had much more resources than Sorda. However, short films such as Cemento y acero (Cement and Steel), starring Daniel Guzmán and Luis Tosar, veterans, multi-awarded and usuals at the Goya Awards, were left behind, being selected but finally not nominated, so clearly budget is not everything.
Sorda has already marked a milestone for being the first time in the history of the Goya Awards that a film starring a deaf person has reached the awards ceremony. But the short film Sorda is one of the favourites in its category, it has a great chance of winning and making a bigger impact if possible. We hope this is the case and that Miriam's artistic career continues to achieve many more successes.
Sources:
- El Diario (2022, December 1). Nominado a los Goya 2023 el corto murciano 'Sorda'. Available in https://www.eldiario.es/murcia/cultura/nominado-goya-2023-corto-murciano-sorda_1_9760634.html
- Enríquez Cuevas, C.I. (2022, November 19). "Sorda": Cuando sobran las palabras. En Cinema Gavia. Available in https://cinemagavia.es/sorda-cortometraje-critica/
- Fernández, C. (2022, November 11). Murcia será otra vez plató de cine: Eva Libertad y Nuria Muñoz harán una película de su corto 'Sorda'. In Murcia Plaza. Available in https://murciaplaza.com/murcia-sera-otra-vez-plato-de-rodaje
- Fernández, C. (2022, March 29). El corto murciano 'Sorda' deja huella en el Festival de Málaga en su viaje por certámenes de todo el mundo. In Murcia Plaza. Available in https://murciaplaza.com/el-corto-murciano-sorda-deja-huella-en-el-festival-de-malaga
- Fernández, C. (2020, November 24). Cuando se escucha por los ojos: Eva Libertad y Nuria Muñoz ruedan 'Sorda', su proyecto más personal. In Murcia Plaza. Available in https://murciaplaza.com/Cuandoseescuchaporlosojos
- Lorente, J. (2022, October 9). Miriam Garlo: escuchar con la mirada. In La Opinión de Murcia. Available in https://www.laopiniondemurcia.es/cultura/2022/10/09/miriam-garlo-arte-persona-sorda-77017648.html
- Prensario Internacional (2022, October 11). El cortometraje Sorda cosecha premios y apunta a los Premios Goya. Available in https://www.prensario.net/39396-El-cortometraje-emSordaem-cosecha-premios-y-apunta-a-los-Premios-Goya.note.aspx
- Sánchez, P. (2022, December 2). El cortometraje murciano 'Sorda', camino de conseguir el Goya. In Cadena Ser. Available in https://cadenaser.com/murcia/2022/12/01/el-cortometraje-murciano-sorda-esta-nominado-a-los-goya-radio-murcia/
- Velasco Ruiz, J. (2022, December 11). 'Sorda': maternidad y discapacidad en la gran pantalla. In GN Diario. Available in https://www.gndiario.com/cortometraje-sorda-discapacidad-maternidad
