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From: ljnnsp@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (LJ Nehring)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Sign films
Keywords: subtitles, Sign language, Lassie Syndrome
Message-ID: <18363@bunker.isc-br.com>
Date: 28 Mar 91 04:17:54 GMT
References: <18349@bunker.UUCP>
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Index Number: 14195

In article <18349@bunker.UUCP>, richardd@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Richard Dallaway)
writes...
>Index Number: 14182
> 
>The other night I watched a film on TV called "Love in never silent."
>It tells the story of a girl growing-up with her Deaf parents in 1920s
>America.
> 
>The thing that bugged me about this film (and also "Children of a
>lesser God") was the excessive use of something I've started to call
>the "Lassie factor" (or syndrome).
> 
[Remainder of quote deleted]
> 
>So it looks like the Lassie syndrome is fine for dogs and the Deaf.
>I guess the message still hasn't sunk in: Sign is a genuine language...
> 

Richard, I agree with your observation, and I have also been quite
annoyed by the film industry's treatment of the Deaf.  Myself
hearing, I have been very involved with deafness and deaf culture
for the last three years.  I think that the subtitling would be the
best idea, but I think that the signs themselves must be shown in
their entirety.  _Children of a Lesser God_ was so difficult to
bear because the signs were mostly hidden.  The signing space is
much larger than "talking space", and that has to be understood by
the film makers who attempt to use it.  A good friend and I have
been throwing the idea around of an all ASL film, with English
subtitles.  We have been talking about different ways of signing
(shadows, windows, mirrors, etc.) but we are a long way from a
breakthrough.

arf! arf!
what's that Phydeaux?  The boss is coming?
woof! woof!
okay girl, I'll hurry!

if you, or anyone else, have ideas about filming ASL, or anything I would like
to hear them.
thanks
C U later...