Representing the Deaf community

Accurately representing the deaf community as a whole in our opening is of utmost importance.  Although we are just high school students, we feel inclined to pay homage to the community, otherwise our idea would be futile. My partner and I are both in ASL class, as I mentioned before. Because of this, we've been exposed to a lot of knowledge and information on deaf people and ASL. This definitely played a part in our decision to do this idea, because we know so much about the topic. In class, we watched numerous videos and documentaries on the lives of deaf people, and one topic that causes much conflict in the community is cochlear implants. Cochlear implants are small electronic devices that electrically stimulate the cochlear nerve (nerve for hearing). Simply put, they're electrical machinery that allow deaf people to hear to a certain degree. We toyed with the idea of the main character in our film having one of these implants, that way they would talk orally. But we realized that, from what we learned, some members of the deaf community see the implants as a form of oppression, taking away their most prized cultural aspect: they're signed language. We also didn't know how we were going to include a cochlear implant in the opening because they are very VERY expensive, we wouldn't be allowed one besides medical necessity, and a dupe would look too unrealistic (could be portrayed mockery as well). In having a character who is deaf and uses ASL as their primary form of communication, the deaf community would receive the most raw form of representation, because signed language is the essence of their culture. 

 

Above is the trailer for a 2000 documentary my partner and I watched, called Sound and Fury, and it showcases the deaf community's divisive feelings on cochlear implants. The deaf parents in the film don't want their deaf child to receive the implant, like other deaf members, but the hearing family members believe they're making the wrong decision. The deaf community's feelings on this topic play into our goals for representation in this opening. Obviously, we want to show media representation of deaf people who use signed language, which has been pretty uncommon up until the recent release of Coda (2021). We also want to represent deaf children in hearing families who have to suffer from divisive ideas on their deafness, which is very prominent but not talked about enough.

One problem I briefly mentioned in my previous posting was our conflicts with casting. Having a deaf actor would be ideal for us, because of the representation it would bring, but unfortunately our environment and school does not allow for this. Because we are choosing to have the main character sign (not talk), we need to cast someone who is pretty much fluent in sign language. We both are in ASL 3, which definitely helps our chances of finding an eligible candidate. So instead of finding a deaf actor, which is almost impossible, we are looking at our classmates to see who can act. We already have a few candidates, most of whom are in drama class as well. This is highly important because drama students in ASL are another level of emotive and expressive when signing, which is what we need in order to showcase the most accurate representation. This may seem like a lot considering they'll barely be signing in our opening, but we want to make sure the few lines they DO sign are accurate and a positive representation of the deaf community.