This film tells the story of Charo, the director, who loses all her hearing as an adult and she questions herself and asks herself: How does a hearing-impaired hear?
Diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural progressive hearing loss in the first grade, Charo became fully deaf by the age of 23, and received cochlear implants against her parents’ wishes. Structured with eight distinct stories and questions, Mato’s autobiographical documentary flits between childhood stories and digressive memories, the scientific and medical explanations of hearing loss and implants, and poetic ruminations on the nature of life and language. Mato uses the film to process her own experience, interweaving home videos of her childhood with the stories and lives of people she’s interviewing for the film, and exploring the stories and lives of the d/Deaf and hard of hearing while resisting a monolithic experience. A beautiful, highly personal film processing and celebrating the experiences of those with hearing loss.
Charo Mato is an Argentinean filmmaker who studied Image and Sound Design at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA). She has been a fellow of the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Talents Buenos Aires and RespectAbility Entertainment Lab. Nominated in the 38th IDA Documentary Awards for Best Writing with her first documentary, 8 Stories About My Hearing Loss, which is supported by Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), Instituto Nacional del Cine y el Audiovisual del Uruguay (INCAU), and Sundance Institute. The film premiered at the 9° Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival (FIDBA), 41° Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), 18° Santiago de Chile IFF (SANFIC) and won Best Film at the 9° Construir Cine – Festival Internacional de Cine Sobre el Trabajo (International Labour Film Festival) and Best Film, Best Director and Best Editing at 19° Tandil Cine.
World Premiere - 9° Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival (FIDBA) - Official Selection of National Feature Competition
41° Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) - Official Selection
18° Santiago de Chile International Film Festival (SANFIC) - Official Selection Women directors in focus
14° La Semana del Documental- DocMontevideo- Official Selection
33° Espoo Ciné International Film Festival - Official Selection
2022 - 38° IDA Documentary Awards - Nominee for Best Writing by Charo Mato
2022 - 23° ACCU Awards - Winner Best Sound by Rafael Alvarez
2022 - 9° International Labour Film Festival (Construir Cine) - Selection and Winner of National Feature Competition.
2022 - 19° Tandil Cine Film Festival - Official Selection and Winner Best Film, Best Director and Best Film Editing.
2024 - 8° Houston Latino Film Festival (SFLFF) - Official Selection and Winner Best Documentary Feature.
