Instructions to Hearing Persons Desiring a Deaf Man

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

This short animated film is based on a poem of the same name by Deaf poet Raymond Luczak. Both the film and the original poem explore the poet's own story of frustration and resilience: the struggle of a Deaf gay man to find love in the Hearing community. Without any sort of spoken word, the film's only use of language is in American Sign Language, left untranslated. The project aims to reconsider the substandard role of disability in film and media.
When a video of the poet himself Signing the poem is realized on screen, the usual position of the Deaf person in society is reversed. Now the audience is the one in need of translation. This disability that is so often seen as a setback by the Hearing community here becomes a means of empowerment and beauty. In this way, the work strives to critique our common ideas of Deafness and disability in the Hearing world.

What kind of communication approach do you use?

The work is a mixed-media animated video, which means the narrative of the poem is overpowered by the grittiness of the film's texture. Different media (such as paint, digital animation, and tea leaves) reflect changing perspectives and the complexity of Deaf-Hearing interactions. The medium of fast-paced video stresses the rapid developments of technology in opposition to stagnant social change.

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

I think the most important benefit of the work is the opening of a new world to Hearing audiences. Most people are unaware that Sign Language poetry even exists, and similarly are unconcerned with Deaf culture, because it is not something within the realm of their own experience. For me, learning about Deafness and Sign Language was a stepping stone into the complex world of communication between the disabled and the able-bodied. I think this work carries with it the immediate realization that this is a depiction of Deafness unseen in film or media -- primarily because the Deaf and disabled seem to be most commonly depicted as objects of pity. I hope this work demonstrates how the Deaf are gifted in their own ways of communicating, so Hearing audiences can be the ones who are lost in translation for once.

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

Through the work I learned a lot about Deaf culture and disability itself, as well as discovering how non-understanding can be a goal in itself in communicative practices. I remember being very nervous throughout the creation of this project that my audiences would not understand what I was trying to convey, that the complexity of the project for me would equate to confusion and uncertainty for them. However, by the completion of the project I finally came to realize that this confusion might be a goal of the project, that an uncertainty will allow the audience to decide for themselves what the work means.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

The work is intended to be shown alongside other film and animation projects at festivals or screenings. It is available online as well. In both contexts, the expectation for the viewer is that they will be seeing an animated film, something that will be sweet and childish and reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons. However, the goal of the work is to upset that expectation and catch audiences off guard, to undermine the assumption that animation is a child's medium. The social critique and discomfort rendered by the work are intended to leave the viewer uncertain and perhaps more aware of their relationship to disability in film/media.

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

Ongoing submissions to festivals around the world set the context for the viewing of the work, as well as some social media promotion and sharing through friends. Currently, the film is screening in Poland, Germany, Uruguay, Australia, and throughout the United States. As mentioned previously, the ideal implementation of the film is its presence amidst other animated fiction films, which often fulfill those expectations of childish naiveté and wonder that viewers hope to see in animated films. I hope the work can be something that bothers the viewers as the thing that "didn't quite fit" amidst the other works they saw, and in that way might stay with them.

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)

Because the project is an animated film based on a written poem rooted in the oral tradition of sign language, the work spans many types of media. While the work has evoked some response in the Deaf community, it has also caught the attention of other filmmakers, animators, and art students, which is more important I believe. I have had several animators tell me they hope to try my multi-media technique, but even more seem interested in how the technique coincides with the unique nature of the film's themes. Amidst these responses, I hope more young animators will shy away from the comfort and ease of meeting the expectations of audiences, and instead will challenge assumptions about animation as well as common depictions of disability in media.