Film tanning captures children hearing their mothers for the first time
Thanks to a fundraising campaign by the Hear the World Foundation, children with hearing loss can hear again. The Zurich-based production company Filmgerberei documented the campaign through film and photography.
For the first time in its history, the Hear the World Foundation donated cochlear implants to give hearing to children with profound hearing loss. The children selected for this pioneering project all come from the slums of Panama. Filmgerberei filmed and photographed the project and captured the touching scenes when the children heard their own mother's voice for the first time.
As a one-man team, Silvio Gerber was on the road with sound, light and camera to document Hear the World's latest project: the first cochlear implant donation and its successful activation. On the one hand, little equipment was desirable in terms of travel, but it was much more important that the children could be filmed in an intimate setting.
And that was an exciting communicative challenge, as the children have profound hearing loss and do not speak sign language. Nevertheless, it was important that the children in particular understood exactly what the cameraman, who was so close to them, was doing.
Understanding filming through play
The solution was to play together and explain filming to the children. The children were even allowed to take test shots themselves. "Children grasp things very quickly and then know why you have to shoot certain things this way and that. They often learn the processes faster than adults," explains Gerber.
According to Filmgerberei, the collaboration between the Hear the World Foundation, its local project partner Funproi and the cameraman was ideal. This made it possible to create a framework for the documentary that was characterized by great trust for everyone involved and that allowed the emotional images to be captured.
Tears of emotion
And although the equipment was kept small, quality was by no means sacrificed. A high frame rate and a shooting mode that left plenty of scope for design in post-production made it possible to convey the emotions and the colorful world of Panama in the film.
In the end, the scenes of the implant activation not only moved everyone on site, but according to the press release, tears also flowed repeatedly during post-production.
All photos: zVg; Copyright Hear the World Foundation
