I went to Elmfield School for deaf children in Bristol where I got the opportunity to mix with other deaf kids and learn sign language.

By the time I had finished my schooling, I’d got a degree in Graphic Design and got an award for a year’s Art Foundation at UWE.

But I almost flunked it due to lack of deaf support and the lectures were a nightmare.

It was my first experience of independent education and I wasn’t really aware of the various supports available for deaf students.

Samuel Dore: "I'm one of the biggest film buffs around."

Immediately, I landed a part time job at a publishing company in Bristol and helped design a brochure about the city's night scene which engulfed my social life to the extremes.

Documentary

Around this time a colleague who was producing a magazine program called Vee-TV for Channel 4 asked me if I fancied making a short film for them.

Up to this point I'd never considered making one despite the fact that I’m one of the biggest film buffs around, I eat, drink, breathe, watch, read, absorb anything to do with film.

So I took on the job and made a documentary called 'Bursteardrum'.

It is about the rise of deaf clubbers in the underground scene which erupted the filmmaking monster within me.

Love of music

My films are both audio and visual – I have a great love of music which contributes to the plot and emotions of my films.

In my film, Chronic Embarrassment, two separate pieces of music were created for two different scenes.

Chilled-out music for the dinner party scenes and banging house for the club scenes which makes each part distinctive.

The film, All the Small Things, which is a love letter to Bristol, has a trip-hop laced soundtrack in various formats to express the emotions of different scenes - and of course Bristol is the home of trip-hop.

Accessible to all

Being deaf, I have no hearing but my visual sense has been heightened and my world is based on vision such as lip-reading, watching a film with subtitles etc.

Samuel is helping to set up a deaf film and TV festival

My films have a strong visual style – I always play with the camera and create camera work to express the emotions and drama – that’s what the camera’s for.

I make it a rule to make my films accessible to both hearing and deaf audiences so no matter what the subject of the plot is about I always have a subtitled version as I am deaf and it is my identity.

Films are made for everyone to enjoy no matter who they are.

It is very common for deaf people to experience speech problems as with the loss of hearing we don’t really understand the concept of sound which is linked to speech.

However, I come from a fully hearing family and they encouraged me to have speech therapy lessons since I was a kid but they never stopped me from using sign language so I’m lucky to have a level of good speech.

I have a lot of hearing friends so I’m constantly improving my speech.

Rise in deaf filmmakers

In the last few years there’s been a steady growth of deaf amateur filmmakers emerging since Channel 4’s Vee-TV introduced their Pulse short film strand.

Commissioning first-time deaf filmmakers to make their own films to be shown on mainstream TV.

The British Deaf Association is handing out its third annual short film bursary as well as deaf film festivals in Wolverhampton, London, Edinburgh and Cardiff becoming more popular creating so much exposure for deaf filmmakers.

I’ve attended many deaf film festivals throughout the UK and even went overseas to Chicago.

My film, Chronic Embarrassment has been shown in Washington DC, Maryland (where it won an award) and is currently part of an USA Deaf Cinema Tour.

I’m assisting in setting up Vision Sign: Bristol Deaf Film & TV Festival at the Watershed Media Centre during October 2003.

My current project keeps me in London but as soon as I finish Tricks I’ll be moving back to Bristol as I’ve been pretty homesick.

>> You can watch Samuel's film - All the Small Things - from the audio/video box on the left.

It's Samuel's 'love-letter to Bristol' and received this praise from DAIL Magazine when it came out in 2002:

"…A beautifully shot and edited film-within-a trailer that made Bristol resemble the Italian Riviera…”

>> Vision Sign takes place at the Watershed on October 4/5. 2003.