Experiencing Interruptions?

Singing For Silence

Non-hearing children want to continue singing to change fate after their performance at the Beijing Concert Hall.

  • Yixin ZHANG
    Director
  • Jia Zhao
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 28, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    300,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    American Sign Language, Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • CNEX Chinese Doc Forum 10 2019
    Taibei
    Taiwan
    N/A
  • CNEX Chinese Doc Forum 12 2021
    Taibei
    Taiwan
    N/A
    Best Potential on Impact
  • Doc Edge Pitch 2022
    Whitington
    New Zealand
    N/A
    Dhaka Doc Lab: Rough Cuts
  • Dhaka Doc Lab: Rough Cuts 2022
    Dhaka
    Bangladesh
    N/A
Director Biography - Yixin ZHANG

Filmmaker and visual artist working in observational cinema, exploring interior lives and marginalized communities. Her debut feature, Singing for Silence (in production), follows seven years with a children’s choir in China’s hearing-impaired community.Her award-winning shorts have screened internationally, and she has directed episodes in series by Jia Zhangke

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In 2018,I began filming. Singing for Silence follows a group of hearing-impaired children in Guangxi, China, over seven years.

The film combines close-ups, which draw viewers into the children’s intimate, silent world, with wide shots that highlight the distance between them and the wider society. Adopting a non-intervention approach, I captured interactions without narrative judgment, letting sign language, subtle glances, and shared rhythms communicate their experience.

Working with the choir, musicians, and translators, I became aware of how sound shapes perception. Moments of silence, vibration, and restrained communication reveal the richness of experience beyond words. For these hearing-impaired children, changing their destiny through singing is even harder than singing itself.The film examines not only disability but also societal prejudices—race, gender, region, and more—that shape our lives