Deaf Rochester Film Fests: 2009

Anna van Dam is one of the few deaf Jews who survived the Nazi camp at Auschwitz. She used lipreading and her intuition to survive. She did not hear the screams, shootings and
cries commonly heard in the Nazi camps. She was born in 1926 in Antwerp to Dutch Jewish parents and deported from the Belgium Nazi transit camp in Mechelen to Auschwitz
when she was 17. Her story is a unique and inspirational tale of survival, with scenes shot in The Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. See the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ivr75EHNwg

Five film poems in Dutch Sign Language by Deaf poets Wim Emmerik and Giselle Meyer and the hearing filmmakers Anja Hiddinga and Leendert Pot, with a literary translation into Dutch by Erik Bindervoet and Robbert Jan Henkes, and into English by Gene Moore; a lecture by the poet Wim Emmerik on sign poetry; and a photographic exhibition by the photographer Lex van Rossen.

A fun parody of implants for children, this turns the tables and shows the latest technology – the Bionic Hand Implant – to help the lonely minority of hearing people join the real
world and start using signlanguage like everyone else!

Archives, 3rd Floor
A Blind date goes hilariously wrong. But could there be a happy ending?

Lisa finds herself being charged with the murder of her husband. The problem: Lisa doesn’t remember becoming a widow. A detective doctor and an interpreter attempt to help Lisa restore her memory of her husband’s death and the Blue Box, which may contain the key to proving her innocence. The suspense of her journey of recollection may endanger her life.

Adrian, a young Deaf dancer shares her charming yet heartbreaking stories of growing up struggling against fitting into the box that was created for her. After transferring to a residential school, her differences become a daily battle. We share her diarylike experience as she leads us through her journey for acceptance. Will she discover a true sense of belonging? Will she continue to feel isolated in her own community?

Frank loses big time during his poker game and owes people money. He struggles to pay off the debt, but runs out of time.

The film follows students from Gallaudet University to the Baltimore Comic Con, and they get to meet a comic book superstar, Jim Lee.

In an era of technological improvements for deaf people, such as the cochlear implant, the destiny of the deaf is examined through one man’s experience

Deaf skateboarders at state parks are documented and two skateboarders tell how they started and what inspires them.

This is the remarkable story of 18 boys and girls in Kolkata, India who were given a new chance at life after being abandoned by their families or escaping abusive homes. While many nongovernmental organizations in India often overlook homeless children who are deaf or have cerebral palsy, Shuktara embraces them.

A few days prior to his wedding, a man makes a costly mistake that would affect the rest of his life, and tries to cover it up.

A man deals with an unexpected change in his life.

View online video. With a mother for a mortician, a little girl has never experienced a smile since birth. When she wishes upon a shooting star, happiness comes in the form of her worst phobia a clown.

A heartwarming silent movie with no sign language or captions.

View online video.When Valerie Clarke, the larger than life owner of a bed and breakfast, makes her first booking in more than 20 years. She is about to be awoken from her incredibly depressing life but all hell is about to break loose because Valerie is no longer the young woman she once was.

This documentary is comprised primarily of archival and recent video footage of various performances and interviews of Deaf poets who were experimenting with poetic devices in
ASL from approximately 1984 – 1992.

Preservation of community stories and experiments with American Sign Language and film techniques.

View online video. A mysterious man drops in at a hole in the wall bookshop. He seems to be a menacing vagabond – but as the saying goes, “Never judge a book by its cover."

This documentary profiles the community that existed on Martha's Vineyard for 300 years, where deaf and hearing people all used sign language to communicate with each other. The filmmaker interviews Nora Ellen Groce, the author who wrote a book about this community's history, as well as some of the older residents who remember their deaf neighbors and relatives.

View online video. The link goes to Part 1. Look for Part 2 and Part 3 for the complete video. Accompany Ethan Sinnott at Gallaudet University Theatre Arts as he directs the performance of Agamemnon. The behind the scenes views show how he deals with preproduction and production issues with the deaf cast.

Are Deaf people respected as human beings? How many depend on Supplemental Security Income? How many are fluent in American Sign Language and English? Deafness is a multimilliondollar industry, yet how much of this money goes to deaf people? Deaf people are viewed as second class citizens in this country. This may start to be changed by showing this problem in film.

This movie is a story of deaf author and his gradual hearing loss. Along eternal nostalgic longing by lost beauty of music, showing response of the public and their view of life.

Four 20 minute documentaries made by deaf children about their own lives. With English subtitles.

Follow Onalee Cooper as she becomes educated and empowered throughout her journey of being a Native American. Her cultural identity continues to impact her as a deaf woman.

View online video. A female cellist plays a song on a park bench about a deaf man she met once and fell in love with.

An A+ student enters the classroom late as the teacher lectures to her students. Other than her tardiness, the student, who is readily eager to learn, already expresses her disgust.
Issues of oppression are addressed.

A hearing child growing up with deaf parents shows different communication preferences throughout generations.

View online video. Set in a littered squatter camp, a man carelessly casts his empty cigarette box away. When the box hits the ground, it transforms the litter into a rubbish monster humanoid that attacks the locals. Also, there is a companion picture book. https://albert.rit.edu/record=b2832361~S3

The journeys of four deaf entertainers are chronicled in a single year as their stories intertwine and culminate in some of the largest events of their lives.

The art project explores confusion in a natural environment of dandelions. The question begs whether they are loved or haunted by fluffy seeds.

The Deaf Rochester Film Festival is proud to offer the public’s first “sneak peek” of Signs of the Time, a documentary that examines whether the use of hand signals used by
baseball umpires was developed by legendary deaf baseball player William “Dummy” Hoy.

Ben Silver has had enough with standing by and waiting for change. Violence is his only remaining defense to the dehumanization of his community and Vince is his first, and
certainly not last, victim. Will Vince be able to bargain himself out of his own manipulation?

View online video. A unique ASL music video based on the song made popular by Beyonce, featuring Jubil Khan.

Three women in their 20s are shown through their graduation of a unique Social Work program at Rochester Institute of Technology. The Social Work program integrates hearing,
hard of hearing and deaf students in an inclusive program. The filmmaker explores the life experiences of the three protagonists prior to the program being closed after 37 years.

Deaf women had been the targets of a serial killer’s spree for a month. Fortunately, one of them barely survived and kept cover for a while. Finally, she decides to report to the police
and an interpreter is appointed for her.

The classic tale told in American Sign Language by Raychelle Harris.

In the middle of the picturesque Negev desert lays the Bedouin village of ElSayed, believed to be home to one of the largest percentages of deaf people in the world. Through generations, a unique sign language has evolved, making it the most popular language in this rare society that accepts deafness as natural as life itself. The village’s tranquility is
interrupted by a father’s decision to change his deaf son’s fate and give him a cochlear implant, allowing him to hear sounds. See trailer via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsNCE2_pgHo

View online video. A look at the Holocaust from a Deaf perspective. Doris Fedrid, a Jewish Polish Deaf survivor who later became blind after the war, retells her experiences during the Holocaust. In her very unique signing style, Doris recounts her experiences in the ghetto, in a slave labor camp, her escape and hiding in a chicken coop as well as moving to the U.S. where she met another Deaf survivor, married and raised a family.