Date: 23rd February 2024
Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm
Note: Session will be supported by International Sign Language Interpreters and will not be recorded.
Presenter 1, Name: Xavier Tam
Presenter 2, Name: Gemma King
To register: Please fill out the registration form
Talk 1, Title: Theorizing "Cinema of Deafhood" as "New 'Deaf' Cinema": Why is a Deaf-centric Critical Approach (Deafhoodist Film Criticism) Essential to the Development of Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals, and Sign Language Media?
Talk 1, Abstract:
This presentation will discuss the research on Deaf Cinema (DC), Deaf Film Festival (DFF), and Sign Language Media (SLM). It will provide parameters for understanding these topics and explain why Ladd's concept of "Deafhood" is crucial as a critical theory when developing and discussing DC, DFF, and SLM. The presentation will also introduce the term "Cinema of Deafhood" and its significance to the construction of a Deaf-centric critical approach to film studies (i.e., Deafhoodist Film Criticism).
In the French language, the term "Silent Cinema" is often referred to as "Cinéma Muet," which translates to "Mute Cinema" in English. However, Michel Chion, a film theorist and experimental musician, argued that "Cinéma Sourd", meaning "Deaf Cinema," is a more accurate description of the film viewing experience of Silent Cinema. [1] This was the very first time "Deaf Cinema" was used in academic scholarship, and Chion's argument was not related to the identity politics of Deaf people. Rather, it was a debate on whether "Cinéma Muet" or "Cinéma Sourd" best explains the perception of sound in Silent Cinema.
B. Ruby Rich's essay "New Queer Cinema" was a seminal work that established the concept of Queer Cinema. Rich observed that the emergence of LGBTQ Film Festivals and independent films in the 1990s gave rise to positive portrayals of LGBTQ people and queer consciousness. [2] Prior to Rich's essay, the idea of "Queer Cinema" was not institutionalized in academic film criticism. The rise of Queer Theory in the 1990s provided the theoretical background for queer film criticism.
In 2003, British Deaf Sociologist Paddy Ladd introduced the term "Deafhood" as a culturo-linguistic model of understanding Deaf Culture. [3] The medical and social models of deafness have long been associated with disability, with the medical model focusing on bodily dysfunctions and the social model concerning how society and the environment disable D/deaf people. Ladd's notion of "Deafhood" celebrates the use of sign language as the vehicle for Deaf Culture, making the Deaf Community a "culturo-linguistic" minority that is distinct from disability.
As a Deaf Film Festival curator and Deaf Cinema researcher, I felt the need to create new vocabulary to recognize the complexity of Deaf Cinema. In curating the Third Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival in 2012/13, I coined the term "Cinema of Deafhood" to "re-De(a)fine" our understanding of "Deaf Cinema", mimicking Rich's creation of "New Queer Cinema". [4] This term problematizes Chion's notion of "Cinéma Sourd" in understanding
Silent Cinema as "Deaf Cinema." It also incorporates Ladd's proposition of "Deafhood" as a critical approach to distinguish the representations of D/deaf people in mainstream, commercial films from that of Deaf-centric, independent films. The existing scholarship on Deaf Cinema merely describes how D/deaf people are represented in films but fails to explain how some depictions of D/deaf people are culturally political vis-a-vis Deafhood, Deaf art and social movements, and more.
Bibliography
[1] Chion, Michel. The Voice in Cinema. Translated by Claudia Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
[2] Rich, B. Ruby. New Queer Cinema : The Director's Cut. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.
[3] Ladd, Paddy. Understanding Deaf Culture in Search of Deafhood. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, 2003.
[4] Tam, Siu Yan Xavier. "Two Notions of Deaf Cinema: "Cinema of Deafhood" VS "Cinema of deafness". Foreword, Programme Booklet, The Third Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival. https://hkidff.hk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/leaflet-3rd.pdf
Bio
Siu-Yan "Xavier" TAM is an Instructional Assistant in Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He co-founded and curated the Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival between 2010 and 2014. His co-directed Deaf mockumentary film Why Signed Songs? premiered at Stockholm Deaf Film Festival (Dövfilmfestival) in 2016, and won Silent Magnolia Award in Best Television Programme at Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival in 2018. As an independent researcher in Deafhood Studies, his research interests include Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals and Sign Language Media. He is allied with Dr. Gemma King's "Sign on Screen" project at Australian National University.
Contact Xavier Tam (Instructional Assistant, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) tamsiuyanxavier@gmail.com / xtam@ust.hk / https://sosc.hkust.edu.hk/node/668
Key words:
Deafhood, deafness, Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals, Sign Language Media, Cinema of Deafhood, Deafhoodist Film Criticism
Talk 2, Title: Superpowers and Deaf Gain in Sign Language Cinemas
Talk 2, Abstract:
Since 2010, more films and series in sign language have been released than in the entire century of film history that preceded it. As Deaf actors and producers such as Marlee Matlin, Lauren Ridloff, Troy Kotsur and Nyle DiMarco gain unprecedented recognition, and as dialogue in sign languages becomes increasingly prevalent on international screens, patterns of d/Deaf representation are beginning to shift. Cinema has a long history of effacing the linguistic complexity of sign, of casting hearing actors in deaf roles and of perpetuating tropes of silence as isolation and deafness as tragedy. These patterns were influenced by a widespread history of discrimination in the form of oralism and audism in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, in recent years, sign language cinema has not only exponentially grown, but it has begun to reflect more authentic Deaf perspectives, as more Deaf creators are included in the writing, production and filming process. In the 2020s in particular, sign language cinema is increasingly dominated by Deaf characters who are not only powerful agents of self-determination, but literal superheroes.
Drawing on the work of Deaf Crit scholars Paddy Ladd and H. Dirksen Bauman and their concept of 'Deaf Gain' (2014), this paper zooms in on a growing body of sign language film and television texts that represent Deaf superheroes. From Eternals (Chloé Zhao 2021) to Hawkeye (Jonathan Igla 2022), via El Deafo (Cece Bell 2022) and SuperDeafy (Troy Kotsur 2017), this corpus shows us d/Deaf characters whose deafness is either irrelevant to their physical prowess, or the direct source of superhuman abilities linked to sign language, vibration perception, lip reading, spatial awareness or heightened vision. Several of these protagonists are multiply disabled, or occupy intersectional identities. Of her role as Makkari in Eternals, Black Deaf actor Lauren Ridloff has praised the power of positive minority representation for d/Deaf people, especially children, in ways that parallel the role model effect of Black Panther for Black children, Wonder Woman for girls or Captain Marvel for Queer youth. However none of these superhero texts are fully Deaf-led, and are still filtered through hearing societal norms.
Situating these films and series in a mostly (but not solely) US context, the paper examines the striking changes to Deaf representation they provide, while also critiquing their picture of unattainable exceptionalism. It will then turn to a range of recent screen texts which provide a counterimage to this Deaf exceptionalism, in which radically humanising narratives paint a picture of Deaf normality. Throughout, it asks what our screens can tell us about sign language, deafness and power- and why it matters who is doing the telling.
Bio
Gemma King is Senior Lecturer in French at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on contemporary francophone cinemas and museums, as well as transnational screen cultures. From 2023-2026, she is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow on the project 'Sign on Screen: Language, Culture and Power in Sign Language Cinemas'. She is the author of the books Decentring France: Multilingualism and Power in Contemporary French Cinema (Manchester University Press, 2017) and Jacques Audiard (2021), a volume in Manchester UP's French Film Directors series.
No comments:
Post a Comment