An entry by Homewood-Flossmoor High School students was selected a top entry in the 9th annual Student Silent Film Festival for “The Silence Between Us.”
The film is the work of seniors Anthony Reynoso, Aidan Klauk and Charlie Wachtel. It was selected from 12 entries representing high schools across the Chicago area. The students worked under the guidance of teacher Matt McLindon.
The film depicts the interactions of two friends when one loses his hearing. Despite their frustrations dealing with this turn of events, they take steps to keep their friendship going by using American Sign Language (ASL) descriptive cards.
The 12 entries were reviewed by a panel of judges representing art education and the entertainment industry. Judging was based on story narrative, development, camera work, lighting and editing.
“Taking home an award is always a proud moment, but in a world where art is so subjective, the goal was to submit a film we were all proud of on a technical and emotional level,” McLindon said. “All three of these students have a bright future in the arts, whether that’s film or something else.”
The one requirement for the contest, besides no voice or music, was the students had to incorporate a deck of cards. Klauk said he suggested the ASL cards “because I wanted to tie it into the film being silent. I thought how could we go about it being a silent film and using cards. We could use ASL flash cards and tie the two ideas and bring them into one.”
They had about a month to produce the film, but their schedules had conflicts and then it was semester finals, so they produced the film in about a week. They plotted out the scenes. Reynoso was behind the camera and Klauk and Wachtel were the two characters.
Some shots were in the Wachtel house but others were in downtown Flossmoor at night in late December/early January when temperatures were in the single digits.
Wachtel remembers it as “very cold days, -5 (degrees) when we were outside. We took little breaks in (Anthony’s) car and warmed up between shots.”
This is the second winning film for Reynoso and Klauk, who won the first Viking Film Festival in May 2025. Their project, “The Thread” won Best Feature Film and Audience Choice honors.
Reynoso and Klauk both plan to major in film in college. Reynoso won a scholarship to Connecticut College and Klauk is considering attending Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Wachtel is hoping for a career in music composition. He’ll attend Illinois State University. He wants to write music for films and video games.
The three say H-F has given them direction on their future careers.
“I was always interested in cameras. When I did Film 1 (class) I learned how to make the shot look good and story-wise for editing. I didn’t know I was going to do it full-time, but now I do,” Reynoso said.
Klauk got a taste of video production at Parker Junior High, but jumping from a “small program to a state-of-the-art equipment studio (at H-F) set me into (believing) I could do this for a job. I think I fell in love with it more because of the people I got to work with. I just kind of realized I’d like to do it because of the experience and the time I built and the creations that we made.”
Klauk and Wachtel have been long-time friends, and they were together in Film 1 and Broadcasting. Wachtel will be in the music field, but says, “I feel like broadcasting and film has taught me a lot about time management and especially VTV. I really had to plan out every minute of my life.” His four years in Viking Band also “was a lot of time management.”
To view the films in the competition, visit studentsilentfilmfestival.org.
