This September, UK social enterprise Hear Art is launching Shaping Tomorrow, a brand-new and unique deaf-led video podcast created with a 90% deaf production team.
Hear Art is an award-winning Community Interest Company, co-founded in 2020 by Cindy Sasha and Rachel Shenton, who won an Academy Award for her short film The Silent Child in 2018. Both of them have deaf family members and wanted to support the creative talents within the deaf community.
The company has already successfully produced four deaf-led short films that gained commercial success in the short film festival circuit and saw podcasting as the next step.
Currently in post-production, the five-episode Shaping Tomorrow series uses British Sign Language and is the first deaf video podcast to focus on the journeys of deaf professionals in the creative, sports and entertainment industries while exploring the challenges they have faced, and still face, along the way.
A diverse range of deaf guests including actress Sophie Stone, combined textile artist and co-founder/director of Flare Arts Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings MBE, mountaineer Michael Woods, architect Christopher Laing and make-up artist Nicky Weir will be interviewed by some recognisable hearing faces who work in the same industry. They will each share their personal stories from their professional fields.
Hearing interviewers including actress Maxine Peake, contemporary artist and visual anthropologist Alinka Echeverria, adventurer and solo expenditionist James Aiken, designer and entrepreneur Wayne Hemingway MBE, and make-up artist Caroline Barnes will speak of their comparative experiences with conversations around themes including resilience, personal growth and the pursuit of accessibility, inclusivity and equality.
Hear Art’s CEO and co-founder Cindy Sasha is also the creator/producer of Shaping Tomorrow and says: “Podcasts offer an alternative way to access information and storytelling. I realised how podcasts are exclusively hearing experiences, so I created and produced an inclusive video podcast for everyone to enjoy and be inspired by deaf voices and stories.
“This video podcast uniquely showcases the perspectives of two professionals per episode, one within hearing and one within deaf, revealing how deaf people navigate and thrive in less accessible environments.
“Through their stories, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by the deaf community and the remarkable inspiring ways they overcome them. This video podcast is uniquely deaf-led, and I specifically chose Sam Arnold to direct the series to showcase his exceptional talent as a deaf director.”
Sam Arnold, who was recently a producer on the award-winning film Name Me Lawand, comments: “When Cindy approached me about Shaping Tomorrow, I knew immediately that it would be a breakthrough video podcast. Her vision is so original and important, as is Cindy’s passion and personality; I knew I could get onboard and combine my vision with hers to bring Shaping Tomorrow to life.
“I know that many talented deaf voices have been neglected or overlooked by all industries. Cindy and I shared the same vision to create a platform for them.
“As a deaf director, I am passionate about enhancing the video podcast experience to immerse deaf and hearing viewers. It is particularly important for deaf viewers who are disadvantaged and unable to access many podcasts that are audio only or end up watching unengaging shots of two people talking.”
Actress Maxine Peake says: “This has been one of the most extraordinary experiences; I have learnt so much and I am so impressed by the deaf community. We need more inclusion, we need to break down barriers, we need to stop overthinking things.
“We’ve got a brilliant, rich, diverse, colourful, and exciting world out there and please can we get more of it on stage and screen? Can we represent the world we live in and not the monochrome version that gets presented to us sometimes?”
Hear Art co-founder, actress, and writer Rachel Shenton says: “Shaping Tomorrow’s conversations are so exciting as it’s our first independent venture. As ever, we are committed to encouraging the deaf and hearing community to work together and learn from each other and these conversations are a perfect way of doing that.”
Hear Art is committed to improving employment and commercial opportunities for deaf creatives and has an ambition to have a deaf crew of no less than 50% on each of its projects.
