An ASL Film Festival

Question: What large United States deaf community has not had an annual ASL Film festival until now?

If you guessed Washington, DC, you are correct.

Friday night and Saturday night was the first ASL film festival in Washington, DC, held at Gallaudet University in the Andrew Foster Auditorium. We were there Saturday night, along with several other deaf people. However, the crowd was not as large as it could have been, because the idea of the festival was conceived only two months ago by the District of Columbia Association of the Deaf. I found that out by talking to the festival organizers during breaks in the four-hour festival.

According to the organizer, two months ago they were trying to think of a way to raise funds for the USA Deaf Sports Federation so that American deaf athletes could afford to participate in the 2009 Deaflympics in Taiwan. They said to themselves that Rochester, New York has an ASL Film Festival; Chicago has one; also St. Louis. What about Washington, DC, home to a large deaf community and the home of Gallaudet University? So, they quickly put together a film festival and announced it.

I found out about the ASL film festival at Gallaudet only at the last minute, through an email. Others I met at the festival told me they found out through word of mouth. Next year's crowd should be much larger and the festival will likely move to the Elstad auditorium. The organizers hope to bring in more films from all over the world, making it a broader celebration of deaf culture and sign language.

So what did we see last night? We saw a series of films and shorts with ASL and sometimes captions too. The films celebrated sign language, the Gallaudet spirit, deaf power, deaf culture, deaf heritage and history, and showcased the talents of deaf film producers as well as some gifted young actors. Below is a list of the films that were shown, for the benefit of the curious. A vote was taken by the audience as to which films were best (winners noted below):

Friday night

• Eric Malzkhun's Setting Out (1944). It was shown to honor Malzkuhn, who passed away this year.
• Brianne Burger's Vote: The Power is in Your Hands
• Calamia's Universal Signs trailer
• Gary Brooks' The G-Files Series
• Gwen's Night Out trailer
• Mosdeux's A Permanent Grave- Won for Friday night

Saturday night

• Fred Beam's Secret Dream music video
• Gary Brooks' Blue Apple - comedy/horror
• Chantal's Cyber Chaos - trailer
• Jonathan Lewis' Arlene's Steakhouse - I voted for this one but it came in second. It combined several story threads: a) a battered girlfriend b) a man becoming deaf who decides to go to Gallaudet c) a failing relationship between two deaf people
• Mosdeux's The Deaf Family trailer
• Audism Unveiled - documentary about audism from childhood through adulthood, all over the world. It won for Saturday night. There was something in it that everyone in the audience could identify with!

Finally, the organizers announced that America is going to become part of an international effort to preserve deaf film, and they also showed short films produced by Gallaudet students this year. I especially liked the one titled "Bison Song."

To ask questions or get involved in the planning for next year's ASL Film festival at Gallaudet, contact ASLFilm@dcdeaf.org.