Ryan McNeil
Tomorrow night, The North by Northeast Festival begins in Toronto, and so for the next four days I’ll be highlighting some of the titles playing as part of its film programme.
For a festival dedicated first-and-foremost to music, there’s a high amount of cheek in beginning the festivities with a silent film…but that cheek will bring audiences something quite special to get the ball rolling.
LA VOZ DE LOS SILENCIADOS (or VOICE OF THE VOICELESS) is the story of Olga (Janeva Adena Calderon Zentz), a deaf teenager from Latin America. She is sent to New York City by her family under the pretence that she’ll be attending a special school for the deaf. When she arrives though, the rug is pulled out from under her as she discovers that the “school” is a front. It is in fact a ring of immigrant trafficking that brings in cash by getting its deaf “students” to beg for money in the subway. Stuck in a life of slavery, we see the situation through Olga’s eyes and experience the silence as she would through her ears.
The film is truly striking and audacious. Almost entirely filmed in black and white, Olga’s New York is as cheery as a Joy Division record. Her expressive eyes always front and centre, we are forced to watch (since there isn’t much to hear). It is because of this that we are all the more shocked by the heinousness of her situation, sensing her feeling of dread and helplessness. The only sliver of hope we are given is in the step-and-repeat rhythm of her routine (wake up, get dressed, load up on pamphlets, work the subway, return to the house, cash-out, eat, bathe, go to bed). The predictability of it almost lulls us into the feeling that there is at least a measure of protection for Olga in the big scary city. Unfortunately, routines that lull can also lull one right off their guard.
When the film isn’t laying into us with sharp imagery, it is drowning us with deafening silence. Ordinarily, a silent film relies on a score to underline its mood and ideas; not here, though. With a touch that can only be described as “ballsy”, director Maximón Monihan reduces the soundtrack down to dull thuds and waves. We hear something that might approach what Olga hears, forcing us to not only see the world as she sees it, but hear it as she hears it. It’s arresting and uncomfortable – forcing us to zero in that much more on every facet of this terrible situation.
The result of it all is a film that is both daring and original – a story that pushes “silent film” down an alley that not many of us want to walk down unaccompanied. It takes a genre that has been around since the dawn of the medium, and shoves it face-first into the harsh realities of the new millennium.
LA VOZ DE LOS SILENCIADOS is fascinating, engaging, and shocking…and it dares its audience to really sit up and listen.
LA VOZ DE LOS SILENCIADOS plays NXNE 2014 tomorrow night, Friday June 13th – 6pm at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. (official website)