#Deaftalent Goes to Toronto!

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Written by Thomsen Young and you can follow him @
Today, Toronto International Deaf Film and Arts Festival kicked off with their new theme this year called, “Deaf Cinema”. TIDFAF will be celebrating their 5th Biennial festival and they have some of the most talented, diverse actors/actresses that will be featured throughout the festival.

One of the biggest names is Stephanie Nogueras and she will be the co-hosting the Masters of Ceremony with Mr. Anthony Natale. TSG had the opportunity to interview Stephanie when she was just starting her acting career with Switched at Birth. Stephanie is best known for her role as “Natalie Pierce” and in Switched at Birth Season 4 finale episode, “There Is My Heart” was actually inspired by a real accident that happened in Ms. Nogueras’ life.

Filmmakers and talent in the house tonight!! @Anthonyla @ModelStella @catmackinnon pic.twitter.com/OJivkHNPNL

— TIDFAF (@TIDFAF) May 28, 2015

Stephanie co-host, Mr. Anthony Natale, has an extensive long acting career that begins in the early 80s. He has been in Academy Award winning Children of a Lesser God to Switched At Birth to one of the biggest hits of all-time with Deaf West Company: Spring Awakening. He currently works with Deaf West productions being the man of all trades: acting, translating and consulting for Spring Awakening.

TIDFAF will be promoting their event with the #TIDFAF15.

Their kickoff will ironically will start at SIGNS, a restaurant uses sign language when ordering food and has employees that are deaf, that is getting international attention all over the world!

Great turn out of guests tonight at SIGNS!! pic.twitter.com/V8OXHtFakP

— TIDFAF (@TIDFAF) May 27, 2015

TIDFAF will be showing a wide variety of films from short films to a full featured film. Here’s what we know so far: (please note that we will be doing a review of each film as well, so be on the lookout for our review!)

High Schools and Elementary Schools Film Education Day– May 27th (closed to public)
VIP & Sponsors Night with Arts Exhibit– May 27th
Film Tank Workshop– May 28th
Opening Night Film and Red Carpet Gala– May 28th
Friday Daytime Film Screenings– May 29th
Friday Evening Film Screenings– May 29th
Saturday Daytime Film Screenings– May 30th (High Schools and Elementary Schools Films will be presented at the screenings)
Closing Awards Ceremony & After Party– May 30th
Sunday Brunch Workshop- May 31st

Want to know what is the latest people are saying about #TIDFAF15, just check out below!

#TIDFAF15 TweetsThe festival will launch with “The Wall”. The Wall is an German documentary about the impact of the fall the Berlin Wall had on deaf people. The festival will end with one of the most talked about films via Twitter, The Tribe. The Tribe is a drama film, that is near-silent, winner of over 25 international awards, about surviving and falling in love. The film is based in Ukraine/Netherlands and is over 130 minutes long that is featured in sign language with no subtitles. Here’s the latest on what people are saying about The Tribe:

#thetribe TweetsTSG will be following Twitter feed #TIDFAF15 to find out the latest as well as keeping you updated on some of the films we will be reviewing.

As Catherine MacKinnon, TIDFAF Festival Director, importantly pointed out, “The festival is important to the city as it’s part of the diversity and international representation of films by Deaf and hard of hearing artists and filmmakers that’s not often seen in the mainstream film festivals. We’re proud to be part of the “Festival Cinema City”, as there’s 75 film festivals annually! These filmmakers films deserved to be “seen and heard”.”