SYLVIA

Narrative short | Coming soon

Written and directed by Jessie Barr

Starring Jena Malone

LOGLINE

Sylvia (Jena Malone) is waiting for her life to begin, withering under the weight of her hypochondriac mother until a stranger comes into her world and changes everything.

SYNOPSIS

Sylvia is a lonely, hard-of-hearing woman trapped caring for her hypochondriac mother. Stuck in domestic servitude, she secretly channels her repressed desires. When a handsome stranger fluent in sign language arrives to photograph old houses and stay a few nights, her world cracks open. Through glances, gestures, and stolen moments, a quiet, sensual connection blooms, offering a glimpse of the freedom she’s been denied. In a house of silence and control, Sylvia must choose between duty and desire. With no recorded dialogue, a lush immersive soundscape, and rich visual storytelling, Sylvia is a tactile, intimate portrait of longing, agency, and awakening.

ABOUT THE FILM

SYLVIA exists because Gabi Meyers at Plot Twist Pictures (previously Killer Films), Isabella Rossellini, and Modern Silent Shorts 2025. Gabi Meyers recommended me for a grant to make a modern-day silent short film. The MOS Silent Short Film Grant mandate required no recorded sound on set. No recorded dialogue. The restriction was daunting at first, but ultimately freeing. What character would live in a silent world? What would feel truthful? Immediately, this character, this woman, Sylvia sprang to my mind. Her world is not the hearing world I was used to. I became a student of the deaf and hard-of-hearing just as I became a student of silent films. I needed to immerse myself. I believe in studentship and the power of devotion in filmmaking. I studied ASL. with a teacher and immersed myself in deaf culture and artists, especially poets Meg Day, Camisha L. Jones, Ilya Kaminsky, and Kay Ulanday Barrett. I’ve continued my studies and hope the film inspires others to examine not only their way of seeing, hearing, and being in the world but other’s too.

A work-in-progress of the film screened privately as part of Modern Silent Shorts 2025 at Isabella Rossellini’s Mama Farm in July 2025. The film was accompanied by a live score.