A film made by a creative team which includes a deaf student from Uxbridge College has won a 
Maab Adam was part of a team of students who won a national film-making competition - she is pictured here in a screen shot from the film. Her entry was by the first deaf group ever to enter the Adobe Youth Voices competition.
A film made by a creative team which includes a deaf student from Uxbridge College has won a national competition.
Maab Adam, who is studying art and design, joined two others in the video 'Deaf Not Dumb' which won first prize in the Adobe Youth Voices filmmaking contest.
The competition has been running since 2006 and this was the first time a deaf group had entered. The video was one of more than 300 entered in the competition and won first prize against 12 others on the final shortlist.
The film, performed in a ‘rap-style’ using sign language, was presented at the BFI (British Film Institute). It has received more than 13,500 views and is due to be screened at film festivals including DeafFest, Wolverhampton, and the Maine Deaf Film Festival in the USA.
For their prize, winners including Maab will be flown to San Francisco in August to meet other filmmakers and film executives, and take part in discussions, workshops and other creative activities.
Maab (19), said: "As young deaf people we have so many issues because people lack deaf awareness. We decided it would be good to educate them in a nice way so we got involved with Deaffinity and made the film. It was hard work and took months, and we had to sign for hours in a very hot studio room - but we enjoyed it overall. We are really happy to have won and so excited about going to the USA."
Maab, Samira Mohammed, Khayrun Nessa and Halima Begum wrote the lyrics for the video, and then converted them to British Sign Language. Maab, Samira and Khayrun appeared in the video which required a number of rehearsals, filming sessions and edits.
Deaf Not Dumb was created with the help of Deaffinity, an organisation working to improve the lives of deaf people.
* To see the film go to www.deafnotdumb.com - Maab is in the purple headscarf. Maab is also due to be featured in the documentary film Deaf Sisterhood, made by British Sign Language Broadcasting Television, to be broadcast on 6, 7, 9 and 11 June.
Full details of broadcast schedule for Deaf Sisterhood:
* Monday 6 June at 8.45am on Freeview 15, Virgin 428, Sky 315 (Film4)
* Monday 6 June at 9.45am on Virgin 430, Sky 316 (Film4 +1)
* Tuesday 7 June at 2.00pm on Virgin 233, Sky 539 (Community Channel)
* Thursday 9 June at 7.30pm on Virgin 233, Sky 539 (Community Channel)
* Saturday 11 June at 7.30am on Freeview 87, Virgin 233, Sky 539 (Community Channel).