by Abigail Darlington
Charleston City Paper
Hear No, Speak No
Deaf Jam is a documentary you can’t take your eyes off of. If you do, you’re probably missing the point. American Sign Language (ASL) poetry must be seen, not heard. But instead of opening with an explanation of her film, and what ASL poetry even is, director Judy Lieff lets us figure it out for ourselves. At first, it’s pretty frustrating. Hints are thrown at us through shots of rapid sign language and animated subtitles that are difficult to follow. As the film progresses, the metaphor becomes clear. She’s demonstrating to the “hearing people,” as we are called in the film, what it’s like to be thrown into a language we can’t understand. Her technique is effective, and it attaches the viewer to the cause in a way words could not. And once you catch onto the film’s rhythm, it all begins to fall into place.
ASL poetry is basically spoken word for the deaf. It’s a physical demonstration that combines facial expressions, hand gestures, and even dance to create stories, and those stories are what make Deaf Jam so powerful. In the film, a group of teachers at Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, N.Y., are assembling an ASL poetry team to compete at poetry slams like Urban Word in New York City. Through poetry, the students reveal their struggles with deafness, their family life, and even their love lives. Lieff pays equal attention to those issues; she doesn’t just narrow in on the sad stories to tug on our heart strings.
And her honesty isn’t coincidental
