More Than a Movie

More Than a Movie

EPSE 525 Community Event Assignment
Nathan Chiu
University of British Columbia
November 18, 2013

More Than a Movie

On a Friday evening after work, I made my way out to Douglas College to attend
the BC Cultural Society of the Deaf movie night. As I get to the college, I begin to
wonder how Im going to navigate the college to find the lecture hall. I get up one
stairwell and see across the atrium a group of three people all signing to each other in
ASL. I walk towards them and suddenly notice another group further down the hall
signing as well. I thought that this was a neat way to direct people to an event that is
hosted in ASL, deliberate or not. I make my way to the lecture hall and notice that pretty
much everybody has chosen to remain standing in the back of the hall so that they can all
continue to talk. I believe that this was so everyone could always maintain visual sight
lines of one another (Bahan, 2008, p. 89), as the rows of the lecture hall seats would
make it more difficult to sign to each other side by side. As this was my first Deaf
community event, it was a shock to experience how quiet the room was with everybody
talking to each other in ASL. I can see myself encouraging my students to make the effort
to get out to events such as these to be social and to develop a sense of community. I hope
there would be a sense of excitement for a young Deaf student to see a group embracing
ASL, similar to the excitement I experience when encountering people who spoke
English while I was in Taiwan.
It was great to witness all the socializing that was happening in the room. It
appeared as if events like these replicated the places of respite where Deaf people could
find companionship away from loneliness (Padden, 2008, p. 171), that Deaf clubs once
provided. I was learning a lot from just watching the way people interacted, especially
the way people tried to get the attention of others through waving their hands or tapping
them on the arm. This also applied to getting the attention of the whole groups as well

More Than a Movie

the event organizer moved to the front of the hall, flicked the lights on and off, slapped
the table a few times, and waved his hands to gain the attention of the room. After the
movie was introduced, the organizer started the movie and turned the lights off. I didnt
think too much of this at first, as that is how I usually watch movies, but I started to see
shadows of hand movements in the dark as people were still continuing to talk to each
other. I wondered if this was a disadvantage for people to be able to talk during the
movie. It was also interesting to see some people sitting very close to the screen because
of vision issues, which makes sense as the whole movie is conveyed visually.
The movie that was being shown on this night was The Legend of the Mountain
Man. It is a film that is done completely in ASL and has no audio whatsoever. I didnt
even know such full-length movies were being produced but it signifies a movement for
Deaf culture. This was a representation of Deaf art where Deaf artists and actors through
ASL could tell a story. It seems important that Deaf artists be able to use different
mediums such as film to story tell, as storytelling plays an important part in increasing
childrens language and cognitive power (Fleischer, 2008, p. 159). Films such as The
Legend of the Mountain Man contribute to the collection of Deaf art and literature that
can positively impact the educational development of children by means of knowledge
expansion (Fleischer, 2008, p. 159). I think movies like this can also be a fantastic aid for
students who are still learning ASL. They can pick up on grammar, vocabulary, prosody,
and more by being exposed to more ASL. I was able to pick up a lot of information from
simply watching the actors through their emotions from facial expression and body
language. I was surprised at how easily I could imagine what kind of emotional setting
was being created without sound, but through visuals alone.

More Than a Movie

One thing that I noticed from watching the movie was that there was a lot of
humour used in the film. I learned that this is a common characteristic of Deaf art from
the interview project. One scene in particular that made me wonder if the joke was sort of
an inside joke for those in the deaf community was when the littler brother makes a quip
about his older sister dating a hearing person while making a mocking face. I wasnt
really sure if he was just being a typical littler brother making fun of his older sister
dating boys, or if there was something deeper there with regards to the hearing versus
Deaf worlds.
I thought that this movie provided a neat introduction to the lives of Deaf
individuals. There were things that I had never seen before such as the video relay service
calling system. Having these accessibility resources shown in movies can provide
exposure and encouragement for other Deaf individuals to utilize the many resources
available to them. I also found it interesting to see certain things such as people signing
while driving and the attention getting techniques of arm tapping and waving used
throughout the movie.
Another interesting part of the movie was when the Mountain Man or Sasquatch
was in the woods with the lost brother, and they were able to communicate just fine
without a shared language. Was this a subtle suggestion that we (hearing and deaf) can all
communicate without sharing an official language? Furthermore, was it symbolism that
something so elusive and unseen, (Sasquatch), was seen by a visual people (Deaf kids)?
As Bahan, (2008) alludes to, signers have a superior attention to peripheral vision and
signing deaf people make better use of vision. Or was the mythical creature, Sasquatch, a

More Than a Movie

personification of deaf feelings in the world? It was certainly a thought-provoking movie

for myself.
When the movie was over, people were quick to move from their seats into the
stairwells of the lecture hall. Conversations started up again as multiple groups began to
block the stairways. Again, it appeared as if they wanted to get out of the rows of seats, to
a more conducive position to establish visual sight lines of one another. I noticed that
everybody remained in the lecture hall because the room was very well lit. This is quite
different from what I am accustomed to, as my friends and I always leave the venue fairly
quickly, only to loiter outside and talk. With the poor lighting of the hallway and atrium,
it only made sense to stay inside.
Attending this movie night was a very informative experience in observing how a
Deaf event and interaction takes place. But the biggest thing that I took away from this
experience was how I was feeling. Just the thought of attending this event gave me
anxiety and fear. I was really worried about how I would communicate with people at the
event. I wondered how I could pay my fee without having to say anything to anyone. I
was scared that somebody would try to talk to me and I wouldnt even know how to
politely sign back to him or her that I dont know any ASL. This led me to feel very selfconscious. I didnt know what people would think of me being there, at a deaf event,
watching a movie completely in ASL, without the ability to comprehend or communicate
in ASL. After watching the trailer for the movie at home before the event, I was worried
that I might be sitting through the whole movie without captions and was scared I
wouldnt have a clue as to what was going on. Im a grown adult and I had all these
worries rush through my mind and body. I imagine that these experiences for Deaf or

More Than a Movie

Hard of Hearing adolescents in English speaking environments can be even more nervewracking. Students might wonder if the other kids will accept them or not. They might
worry about being able to hear a video being shown in class or a student in the back of
the classroom. They might feel isolated not being able to talk to anyone. I know I felt
underprepared for what I was about to encounter. In the end everything worked out just
fine. There was someone who was able to interpret for me while paying, there were
captions for the movie, and a friend showed up to watch the movie as well. But those
feelings beforehand were something that was not very pleasant.
It was important for me to experience these feelings of uneasiness in a different
environment. I believe that many of my students will face very similar feelings of anxiety
and nervousness being Deaf or Hard of Hearing in oral heavy environments. Knowing
this can help me aid these students in their times of difficulty and hopefully prepare them
for dealing with situations such as these. Being able to instill a sense of confidence and
ability to self-advocate would be a goal of mine when working with my students.
Moreover, Im glad Ive been exposed to groups such as the BC Cultural Society
of the Deaf and the events they put on. I was very impressed with the social aspect a
movie night could provide. It was so much more than just showing up and watching a
movie. There was a lot of community engagement taking place before and after the movie
with all the socializing that was happening. It is events like these that are important to
promote to students in order for them to become engaged in Deaf community. Theyll be
exposed to new deaf role models and friends who share many of the same challenges and
experiences they themselves might have to deal with. It also provides the community
where individuals can establish a bigger social network. I think it is important that young

More Than a Movie

deaf students be exposed to Deaf art such as the movie we watched or deaf poetry nights.
The art can speak to students who can relate to the messages being portrayed. These
students can also be encouraged to pursue these forms of art, such as striving to be actors,
directors, poets, and other forms of artists. Using these events to open up the deaf world
to sometimes isolated students stuck in a hearing world can be the difference in ones life.

More Than a Movie

References
Bahan, B. (2008) Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race. In
Dirksen, H., & Bauman, L. (Eds.). (2008). Open Your Eyes. Minneapolis MN:
University of Minnesota Press. 83-99.
Fleischer, L. (2008) Critical Pedagogy and ASL Videobooks. In Dirksen, H., & Bauman,
L. (Eds.). (2008). Open Your Eyes. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota
Press. 158-166.
Padden, C. (2008) The Decline of Deaf Clubs in the Untied States: A Treatise on the
Problem of Place. In Dirksen, H., & Bauman, L. (Eds.). (2008). Open Your Eyes.
Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press. 169-176.