Written & Directed by Rinkoo Barpaga 


Rinkoo: "On the 8th April 2013, Margaret Thatcher died, and I remember that day very clearly. At the time, I was unemployed and looking for work. Having been raised in the Thatcher era, this gave me pause for thought. On the news, they were showing footage from the 1980s, and this gave me an opportunity to reflect on how life had changed since she was in power – the clothes, the cars, people’s attitudes. I thought back to how prevalent racism was back then. 


At the time, I was struggling to find work, and faced barriers both within the hearing and Deaf communities. I thought about my journey since then, and all the discrimination I’d experienced throughout my adult life.
I realised that racist attitudes in Britain really hadn’t changed since the Thatcher era, and that there was still widespread discrimination.


This realisation was what spurred me to action. Although racism within the hearing world has been widely investigated and portrayed on TV and in the news, up to that point, the prevalence of racism within the Deaf community had never been thoroughly investigated. At that time, it seemed that around 95% of Deaf people completely disagreed with me when I spoke up about racist discrimination that happened in the British Deaf community, despite it being widely discussed amongst hearing people, in the news, on TV, and in films. This was when I decided to start my research, which culminated in my documentary, Double Discrimination. 


I won a £10,000 tender to made part of the film training scheme & I was a volunteer, making this documentary for 10 months without earning a penny.

However, the research proved very challenging, as many people were unwilling to share their experiences of racism, and the vast majority of people I spoke to refused to believe that it was even an issue. I was challenged by people who knew I was working on this documentary, who insisted that racist discrimination didn’t happen. It took a long time to persuade people to get involved in the project, and many people pulled out for fear of retribution from their families, friends, and workplaces.


Double Discrimination was released on Film 4 at end of March 2015. The documentary sparked fierce debate about the prevalence of racism in the Deaf community. 


Double Discrimination won the Disability Justice filmmaking award 2016, and I have been invited to show the documentary at film festivals all over the world. Sadly, British film festivals have not shown the same interest.
Double Discrimination was the first documentary in the world to investigate racism within the Deaf community."



2015

Double Discrimination debut on British Television - Film4, on the 23rd March 2015. 



2016

8th January 2016. The Seattle Deaf Film Festival, 1

24th February 2016  Hong Kong Film Festival 

22nd, October 2016. Superfest International  Disability Film Festival, San Francisco. Received Disability Justice Award. 



2017

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2018

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2019

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2020

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