Time Capsules of Signed Life and Histories
Deaf-made home movies and folklife materials are powerful time capsules of signed life and signed history because they capture the everyday experiences, traditions, and personal narratives of Deaf people in their native language—sign language.
They offer future generations a direct, visual connection to the lived experiences and heritage of the Deaf community, making them vital cultural and historical documents.
"These home movies ask us all to embrace an alliance of people, histories, memories, & images that produces a continually unfolding commons, a dream against amnesia." -Karen Ishizuka & Patricia Zimmermann (2007)
"These home movies ask us all to embrace an alliance of people, histories, memories, & images that produces a continually unfolding commons, a dream against amnesia." -Karen Ishizuka & Patricia Zimmermann (2007)
NEW BOOK RELEASE
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By Matt Malzkuhn & Ted Supalla
This book on Deaf made home movies takes readers on a journey through the first fifty years of filmmaking (from 1925 through the 1970s), highlighting how the American Deaf community utilized silent film technology. Home movies and the visual nature of emerging cinema technology of the time afforded Deaf people the opportunity, one that went largely unrealized by others outside of their community, to capitalize on this novel technology wherein all cultural activities preserved and shared on film were naturally embedded with sign language, therefore debunking the widely held belief that these home movies are silent only because they are without sound. Home Movies Hardly Silent covers the histories, methods and analysis of a significant area of filmmaking that is understudied.