Deaf Rochester Film Fests: 2011

View online video. Andy Stein and Jez Stone are millionaires, they just havenʼt found the money yet. Broke and living in a battered van, Andy, (Deaf) cleanshaven and slightly obsessive shares this space with his messy, scamcreating best friend, Jez (Hearing). Just as things couldnʼt get worse, Jez dreams up the perfect getrichquick plan. Andy will be Britainʼs Top Deaf Psychic, but is it too much for Andy? A sweet, humorous tale of friendship, scams and speaking to the dead.

Starting as early as the 1950s, there have been social and cultural changes happening in the Deaf world. Chuck Baird, one of the founding members of the De’VIA art movement,
describes his journey of how he struggled with his Deaf identity until he completed his commissioned works.

A young woman by the name of Sarah has cochlear implants. Life proceeds normally around her when activated and used. One morning, Sarah’s bumblesome, yet lovable dog
gets ahold of the devices. Needless to say, an experience unfolds; will pearls of wisdom be gleaned?

View scenes from the online video. Two hearing robbers decide to play the Grinch and rob a deaf family’s house of Christmas presents, thinking it would be easy. However, their plot to steal Christmas gets foiled by an overenthusiastic little boy trying to catch Santa on candid camera and hilarity ensues.

Mark, a young deaf man, adopted by hearing parents, is determined to uncover the truth about his past but in doing so reveals a tragic family secret. Mark and his girlfriend, Kate,travel to Suffolk to find out about his birth mother. However, the atmosphere at his birth mother’s cottage, flashes of recovered memory, the revelations of local people and, above all, the combination of beauty and menace in the huge skies and tidal rivers of the landscape – combine to create an environment in which the past crashes into the present.

A daughter returns home no longer a young girl, but a woman ready to care for her widowed, alcoholic father. The return offers no comfort, as father and daughter struggle to communicate with one another. An all too friendly neighbor comes into her life and quickly wears out his welcome. All this cumulates into a turn of events that brings father and
daughter closer – and in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Deaf people in India face many challenges: Difficulties in education, discrimination, inequitable access, and limited job opportunities. This film follows the lives of several Deaf
individuals and their families in Delhi – highlighting their experiences of getting an education, interacting at home, at work, and within their communities.

View the online video. A story about a Deaf person onto a journey discovering how American Sign Language can be part of your daily life and your identity as part of Deaf World

View the online video. The synopsis is Seven Deaf Women from San Diego, California, started a team called "Deaf in Pink" to support The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. They walked 60 miles through beautiful San Diego, camping at night in pink tents by the bay, and spending their days on the wild, festive, pink path created by hundreds of supporters who cheer participants along the way. The San Diego event is traditionally one of the biggest in the country and raises the most money. Funds are used for research to fight against this terrible disease, breast cancer, which has touched the lives of so many. The team almost all first-time walkers, who took up the 60 mile challenge for their mothers, best friends and themselves. One of the walkers says it best "The walk is all about bonds—and a lot of humor!" Follow the Deaf in Pink group as they stride, laugh, cry and triumph together.

"Departure Lounge is a celebration of the friendship and deaf solidarity that develops between Sid, an ailing older man and Matt, a young hospital cleaner. Sid is angry, frightened and isolated. Neither his doctors nor his wife, Morag, seem able to help or comfort him. Matt, is also frightened and uncertain -- he has a partner, Jill, and a baby, but Matt is running away from his responsibilities. It is their deafness that creates the initial bond between the two men. Matt breaks down Sid's isolation by taking him up on to the roof of the hospital and together they create a sort of deaf club in the sky. Here they sit and talk, fall out and make up, speculate on the wonders of a deaf heaven, and slowly come to realise that, despite everything, each can give courage to the other."

View online video. Pamela Witcher’s creation, Desolee – Sorry, weaves together a mixture of two languages, American Sign Language and Langues des signes Quebecoise.

Challenge your mind through the silent rhythm of Pamela Witcher. This “music” video inspired fellow musician Luc Ledoux to create a soundtrack for the video. After a brief email
interaction, the duo decided to merge their two artworks, forming a paradox that works. In this clip, it is possible to allow yourself to feel the music based on what you see, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. See the trailer via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChbNS4zhnyU

View online video. A bittersweet modern day fairytale where three deaf women, Veronica, Karen, and Sally, face three different Christmas experiences until an unexpected event throws them together.
Veronica is just out of prison, Sally’s boys have left home, and Karen has to work through Christmas. What could they possibly have in common? A rediscovering of their past unites
them through their past experiences at a deaf school. This ignites a yearning for more in their lives and lead them to take another chance on life.

View online video. Direct from his Facebook fan page, “Just a deaf guy on a mission to show the world how American Sign Language videos should be.” Jason Listman’s first personal music video, an interpretation of Katy Perry’s Song, “Firework.” Upon hitting Youtube, this film gained over 30,000 views in less than a month.

View online video. A film that involved over 200 Gallaudet students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, board/associate members, and members of the community has been released to the public. Beginning with a black and white drawing on a sketchpad, this film distills the essence of Gallaudet into an 8 minute
sojourn through its heart and soul.

View online video. The Rosebush, an original ASL poem by Ella Mae Lentz, is recited in entirety by Lentz in this short film. Filled with metaphors and historical references, the film examines the experiences of deaf signing communities within majority cultures.

View online video. As a young woman in search of acceptance and love, Fuela faces obstacles along the way in her life, beginning from a young age. While Fuela carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, her brother’s refusal to learn sign language exacerbates her problems. After a life-changing event occurs, prevailing attitudes are challenged.

A show of solidarity worldwide is shown in a quick video conversation made by two deaf women in their efforts to unite all women as one. In watching this film, over 250 women’s
thoughts changed and as a result, felt inspired and motivated. While this video was made in India, World Women’s Day has inspired many groups of women across the globe to
unify under the idea of women’s rights and fair treatment.

Dr. Dave Mason talks about the relationship between the deaf community and educators, professions, politicians, and the media. He offers insights on how our system functions within and outside the critical field ranging from deaf infants to deaf adults, how the system has been complicating the quality of deaf life when it comes to promoting American Sign Language and Langue des signes quebecoise (LSQ) in Canada. Though these models are experienced by Canadians, similarities abound across all countries and cultures.

RJ is a newcomer on the basketball team and she has already has a rival, Maddy, on the same team. Both players share the same dream and goal, but only one gets the ball at the end of the game. Which girl will it be?

Ingelore Herz Honigstein is an 85 year old
deaf Jewish woman who did not speak a word until age 6, nor complete a sentence until 12. Born in Kuppenheim, Germany in 1924, Ingelore is her compelling account of a lonely and confusing childhood, played out against the terrifying rise to power of the Third Reich. After a brutal rape by Nazi cadets when she was a young teenager, her family vows to escape to America. The film, being a mix of first person narrative, archival footage and simple, understated reenactments, is a remarkable and uplifting story of personal freedom, told from a truly unique perspective.

View online video. Jason Listman’s nascent mission has already spawned legions of Youtube and Facebook fans, garnering over 13,000 views for this film in less than three weeks. A fan’s quote direct from his Facebook fan page, “Sitting here with my 4 year old and he is making hand movements with you the 2nd and 3rd time we watched “Just the Way You Are”. Very moving to see something that moves him the way it does me.

L’Enfance Saurde tells the story of Elsa, a nine year old hearing girl of deaf parents. In the midst of Elsa’s life is this constant duality between the hearing and the deaf. One day, she meets a movie director. This movie director has lived through the same thing as her and Elsa can finally confide her feelings of being a hearing child of a deaf father (sign language professor) and mother (a painter).

Mitchell’s Story was a part of a film project to provide media for nonprofit organizations that worked for social change in the D.C. area. For this project, Mitchell tells his story about being homeless and how his life was changed by the nonprofit organization, Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place.

View online video. Due to proponents of oralism at the (International Congress on Education of the Deaf) in Milan voting to ban sign language in education worldwide, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) produced Preservation of Sign Language to preserve early American Sign Language on film from 1910 through 1920. Featuring George W. Veditz (NAD President at the time), Preservation of Sign Language is a film that was selected in December, 2010 to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress due to its enduring significance to American culture.

View online video. As the recipients of the Best Student Short Film and the Best Student Mini15 Film at the 2010 WORLDEAF Cinema Festival, Paludnevicius and Caverly take us on a journey of the most innocent kind of love: the kind that happens at first sight. Bashful boy and girl meet at the metro stop, and – something happens. Is it true love – or the end of the line?

When Edith (92) takes a final journey from the hospital to a hospice, she finds an unlikely friend in Howard (34,) the disenchanted orderly charged with delivering Edith to her
destination. In retrospect, sometimes all you need is a little push.

View online video. This song got its inspiration from the Deaf Olympics and sports in general. However, during the process and development of the song, the theme was broadened. It’s about having a party and feeling victorious after wining a battle. Signmark, as an artist, is saying I made it against all the odds.

View online video. Speakerbox is a song made for the Eurovision song contest. It was a collaboration with a very talented Finnish musician, Osmo Ikonen. This song acted as an introduction of Signmark for the hearing audience and was a kickstart for Signmark’s career as an equal artist. In the music video the director wanted to try out very fast cuts and experimented on the second verse with a new way of visualizing Sign Language.

View online video. This song is Signmark’s most personal song and it was by far the hardest one on this album for it was very emotional. This song was made for the whole community, especially to Signmark’s fan: Emma. The video is directed by Signmark’s deaf brother, Sami Vuoriheimo and filmed by Darren Frazier. The majority of the crew that helped in the filming are deaf, and has gained rapid national exposure upon its release.

German subtitles translated into English by Bernard Hurwitz. English captions by Raja Kushalnagar. This documentary explores the everyday lives of deaf people during the 1930s and how these individuals experienced school and work. With the objective of drawing attention to deaf people, this film portrays how deaf people were misunderstood in society. Following the July 1933 passing of the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases, this film was banned in 1934 by the Reich Ministry for Propaganda and Education of the Masses.

An art film of which three things are in play: A white room, jars of paint, and the woman herself. A battle of two cultural identities, Deaf and Hearing, is portrayed through editing prose and a willingness for this artist to bare her soul for all to see.