Oscar-nominated director returns home
An Oscar-nominated director will be returning to his home town for a showing of his short film to raise money for the young star to get to Hollywood.
Chris Overton, aged 28, from Heath Hayes, made his directorial debut with a short film called The Silent Child which is in the running against four other films to receive the award for the Best Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
The former Kingsmead School student’s heartfelt 20 minute film is about a young deaf girl who is born into a middle class family and struggles with communication until she meets a caring social worker.
He hopes the money raised from screenings of the film will get the five-year-old star Maisie Sly, who is deaf, to Hollywood for the awards ceremony with her family on March 4.
Tickets have almost sold out for a showing of the film at the Electric Palace Picture House along with a question and answer session that will take place from 7.30pm on February 18.
He said: “You never really dare dream of even thinking about the Oscars but now it is the most incredible thing ever especially for the subject matter which was are trying to raise awareness for."
"The picture house is somewhere I used to try and sneak into to see a film aged 12 when I was 11 so it is truly bizarre that my film is showing there now.
"I remember watching the Spice Girls movie there along with Toy Story 1 and the Grinch.
"There was not much to do around the Cannock area on the weekend when I was a kid so I got a video camera when I was 13 and lied to my mum that I needed to have one for a media project. We would make films rather than get into trouble."
The Silent Child was written by his fiancee and former Hollyoaks actress Rachel Shenton from Stoke-on-Trent whose father went deaf over night.
Chris went about setting up a production company called Slick Showreels and worked to raise £10,000 to make the film by going around schools in London, where he and Rachel both now live, and teaching deaf awareness training in return for a donation.
They are hoping to make it into a full-length feature film.
Tickets for the screening are available at www.eventbrite.com/e/the-silent-child-screening-tickets-42692070131
