Silent Twins: Without My Shadow

Documentary about the twins June and Jennifer Gibbons of Barbadian descent, born in 1963 and raised in Yorkshire and Devon, England, and in Wales, near Royal Air Force bases where their father worked as a technician. Their elective mutism was a manifestation of a psychological bond that at once sustained and strangled them, cutting them off from vital relations with anyone else. For most of their lives they were deaf to voices other than their own, cut off from the discourse of the family and the larger community surrounding them. Relies heavily on interviews with June Gibbons after the sudden death of Jennifer in 1993.