Deafblind Documentary Comes to Swinburne
Hayley Price reports on a short documentary to raise awareness, shot by Swinburne student
Emerging filmmaker Luke Pafumi has directed a trailblazing short documentary on the Victorian Deafblind Community in conjunction with Swinburne University.
The World in Your Hands is a short documentary Pafumi has been working on since March, 2026, as a second-year Film and Television student at the university.
Pafumi, who experiences colour-blindness, says the documentary aims to spread awareness about that community. “It gives people a lot of insight into a community that does not have very much attention,” he said. “But I think it’s more broadly showing that people can make a place for themselves, where they can support each other and socialise and be friends in a group that may otherwise struggle with that.”
The World in Your Hands follows the daily experiences of six members of the organisation as they attend a deafblind crafting event run by the Victorian Deafblind Community. On set, the film crew worked with interpreters and assistive technology to speak with the participants. “Everyone was incredibly friendly. Everyone was incredibly funny. It was a really great experience,” Pafumi said.
A recent Screen Australia study saw little improvement in disabled representation on Australian screens with seven in ten titles featuring no disabled characters. According to the study, 18% of Australians experience disability, whereas only 6.6% of main characters are disabled on Australian television.
The World in Your Hands producer Brianna Cox said participants were eager to be involved in the documentary. “A lot of the people we spoke to from Deafblind Victoria were really excited to be a part of our documentary because it gave them a chance to tell their own experiences with being deafblind, which is something that they strive for a lot as an organisation; self-advocacy.”
Cox also revealed the project was created without any expenses. “All of our equipment was hired through the university, and we didn’t have any location fees or have to pay our interviewees,” she said.
According to the Deafblind Victoria website, the organization is working on seven community projects in 2026, primarily centring around community support groups and hubs that focus on skill building, as well as educating the wider community through the preservation of historical stories and artefacts.
The World in Your Hands was inspired by Pafumi’s personal experiences with a deafblind man who was fatally struck by a drunk driver. “Since then, deafblindness is something I’ve always felt very strongly about, and I’ve always wanted to make a film about it because I think it would be interesting to tell this story in the film medium. It’s based entirely in sound and visuals. How do you communicate the life of someone who does not have access to either of those?” he said.
Pafumi has entered The World in Your Hands in Australian film festivals and also hopes to screen the documentary for Swinburne students as well as the deafblind community.
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