"Silent Dance of Courage" Short Film

Hi, my name is Matthew Bacher. I am a University of New Mexico (UNM) film student working on my senior capstone film “Silent Courage.” This film centers around a severely hard-of-hearing high school boy named Noah who struggles with social anxiety due to his hearing loss. Noah develops a crush on a girl named Eve and decides to wear his hearing aids and attend speech therapy in order to communicate with her. Through this process, Noah faces the struggles of not being able to hear in a hearing world and learns that people who truly care about him, will care about him for who he is.

The film is co-written by Matthew Pszyk and myself and will be directed by me. My goal is to shed light on the struggles of being viewed as different at a young age, as well as to inspire young people who are deaf or hard of hearing like I am. This film reflects on my experiences growing up deaf and how connecting with classmates and peers can sometimes be difficult. The film tackle’s themes of social anxiety and being an outsider, something that I believe will connect with audiences within the deaf community as well as others.

This film will be shot digitally in January of 2024. This GoFundMe will help finance the production costs including costumes/props, materials, locations, permits, feeding our hard-working cast and crew, and will assist us in sending the film to festivals in May. Thank you to our donors who will be featured in the film's credits. Any amount, large or small, is greatly appreciated. Please share this fundraiser with your family and friends, as well as on social media. This helps us tremendously. I hope that with your help, we can bring this story to life. This story is very close to my heart and I'm excited to share it with you.