recommendation documentary on a Sign Language/Deaf community

[Frank Bechter]

"In the Land of the Deaf" (1992) -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107796/ --
This is by far the best documentary on deaf culture. It is filmed in Paris,
and takes place only four years after Gallaudet's "Deaf President Now"
student protests which brought national attention to "Deaf Culture" for the
first time.

I also very highly recommend "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox" (2009) --
http://signinghandsacrossthewater.com/2012/03/22/the-heart-of-the-hydrogen-jukebox/--
a recent documentary concerning the ASL poetry movement in the 1980s
at
the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (part of RIT, Rochester
Institute of Technology). I am a supporter of sign language art, but I
believe I am not exaggerating when I say this film should be assigned in
every introductory college course in literature, especially poetry -- for
the sake of students' understanding of poetry/literature itself. I
recommend the film to you because, like "In the Land of the Deaf," it
reveals much about deaf culture that other films do not. In particular, it
reveals that deaf valorization of ASL is not simply a matter of
ethnolinguistic identity. ASL has capacities fundamentally different than
spoken language, and quite impressive ones. If you want your students to
grasp language diversity at the level of language itself, this is the film
to see. Indeed, to the extent that you wish to engage the dominant
Chomskyan thesis on Universal Grammar, you could not choose a more
provocative piece -- provocative insofar as it challenges that thesis. (ASL
art challenges that thesis; there is no discussion of linguistics in the
film.)

A helpful introduction to the capacities of ASL is the recent phenomenon of
ASL music videos. The student can hear lyrics in English while seeing the
ASL translation -- which will look different than signing they have
witnessed so far. Important is to view those videos which are highly
praised by *signers.* The most significant artist in this development is
this "CODA" (child of deaf adults), i.e., this hearing son of deaf parents:
- "Realize" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3JIL_IW7Rg (uses just two
handshapes)
- "Hate That I Love You" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa6XWOLT1kU (a
duet: two people make ASL signs *jointly*)
- "Handlebars" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKngS7dbrNs

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any help.

Frank Bechter
fbechter at gmail.com


On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Jessica Taylor
<jessica.taylor at utoronto.ca>wrote:

> Does anyone know of a good documentary to show undergrads on a sign
> language
> and/or Deaf community/culture? It's for a 1st year seminar on Language and
> Diversity (where diversity could be multilingualism, gender, ethnicity,
> globalization, translation, etc.). Ideally it would be 30-60 minutes, but
> all recommendations welcome!
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jessica Taylor
>
>
>
> University of Toronto
>