South Shields director’s film about teenage pregnancy set for BBC iPlayer premiere in September

The Deafening Silence was filmed in the Tyne Dock area of South Shields on the site of cleared former council housing.

The film, which is around three minutes long, and focuses on the moment a family finds out their teenage son is going to become a father.

Nathan Glendinning, from South Shields, was commissioned to create the film with Tyneside Cinema and the BBC under the New Creatives North Initiative.

"It’s a drama piece, but we wanted to work on something, which was a kind of a slice of life. It shows that moment when a family finds out about that kind of news and how people react to it,” said Nathan.

"I was very keen to keep everything in the North East and have a North East team.”

Nathan said part of the inspiration for the film came from his personal experience.

He became a father at the age of 15 himself, and hopes the project will motivate a conversation and encourage other teenagers going through the same to ask for help.

"It was a very difficult time for everyone to understand how to come together and how to support one another in that situation,” said Nathan.

"It’s something that as I’ve grown older now I can see that there were some positives to that and I was able to give myself a sense of direction and motivation to ensure that I was able to provide something.”

Nathan, 28, said he has a good relationship with his son, who is now 13, and spends half of each week with him.

He said he hopes the film will make people more compassionate towards teen parents.

He said: "I’m hoping I can show this film to people and they can think about it a little bit further and if they ever meet someone in that situation they know this person actually has to deal with quite a lot, and treating them with an element of kindness and discussing how to help them.”

The Deafening Silence will premiere on BBC iPlayer at 12pm on September 23.