As a writer/director, Sofia Golan tells stories that explore colonial romance, with obstacles and even supernatural beings.
What she’s wanted to do throughout her 30 years in the industry is shedding the spotlight on the way that the deaf community, her community — knows her.
This is the inspiration for Ballpark Normal. The new 30-minute series Gollan will be on the market along with Justine Flynn and Naomi Just production company Drama Queen at the Screen Forever Conference in May.
Developed with the support of Screen Australia and Screen NSW, the drama follows Ava and Olivia, independent, deaf sisters. Ava and Olivia are two girls in the next stage of life cusp, forced to navigate a surprise diagnosis.
Golan leads two writers’ rooms for the project and works with story consultant William McGer, a deaf British writer behind the reunion of the BBC bilingual thriller series.
The interdisciplinary artist, who is also set to direct some of the episodes, said the series is a way to delve into the sisters’ universal themes and introduce the hearing impaired community and Australian sign language on-screen, whilst finding hope in the darkness.
“Generally speaking, the deaf person is portrayed as lonely in film and television, with low socioeconomic brackets and outside of society,” she said.
“There are people like that for all sorts of reasons, but the majority of people with hearing impairments are like me, they have college degrees, have a silence of jobs, are as ambitious as the average Australian.
“But I knew it wasn’t enough to create a story about an average ambitious deaf family. I knew it had to be a little more conflicted and have a little more drama. There’s a factor in this story that involves a lot of families.
This is an undeniable combination for Flynn, who officially launched the company in May 2023.
“It was easy for the drama Queen to get involved because it was combined with Sofia’s incredible storytelling skills and a community that has never been featured on Australian television,” he just said.
Naomi Just and Justin Flynn.
“As a producer, I’ve worked with Sofya and Short Form content in the past, so I’m excited to be able to support the vision of this truly unique 30-minute sister, who is the Queen of Drama and is on the cliff of change.”
Ballpark Normal is one of several projects that have focused on the past few years since Gollan left Screen NSW, where he served as Development and Production Investment Manager from 2016 to 2023.
A graduate of both NIDA and AFTRS, she previously worked as an actor at Sydney Theatre Company and the National Theatre for the Deaf and was a longtime presenter at ABC’s Play School. She recently returned to the screen with Jonathan Teplitsky spitting, playing the sister of David Wenham’s honorable protagonist (“Getting Square was one of my favourite films of the time, so it was a joy to be involved”).
Her work behind the camera included short films Chlorine Dreams, Roses, Choice Thresholds at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival, and screened in 2023 at the Lincoln Arts Center in New York and ACMI’s Arts Center in Melbourne, and was awarded community, education and training at last year’s AWGIE Awards.
Along with the Queen of Drama, Golan is also working with Babadok writer/director Jennifer Kent on a new thrasher feature entitled House of Deaf Death.
Set in a Victorian school for the deaf, the story follows a bloody spinning immersion camp in Austrane after a visit from two boys from a nearby private school.
Golan, who is now the author (screen director) of the Screen Rights Committee, said he has entered a new phase of his creative career after gaining insights from the executive side of the business.
“When I graduated from film school, I started as a writer/director, but the culture was very different and the barriers were really high in terms of getting on-board reliability and branding to actually enter the industry as a professional writer/director,” she said.
“That’s when I pivoted and became a screen executive at Screen NSW. (Being) gave me a six-year script development and production manager and gave me a huge amount of insight into how the deal is done, how the work is created, and how creative people work in the capabilities of professionals.”
She added, “It’s an exciting time to return to the industry.”
“Even with Trump and his Day erase, I think there’s an understanding that diversity is really exciting in the industry because it gives a variety of stories that have never been seen before, but people can get involved and really work,” she said.
“It’s exciting to contribute and I’m pleased that I still have the energy and ideas.”
