[In the Land of the Deaf]
Nicholas Philibert
- Can the deaf feel music ? How much does the sense of hearing define mental traits of rationality, logic and reason ? To what extent do the deaf attempt confirmity to the hearing world and to what extent do the hearing accommodate ?
- A moving and convincing portrait of society's misapprehension (and misconception) of the (often isolated, sometimes forcibly so) world of the deaf community.
- Philibert provides a compelling comparison between Jean-Claude Poulain, a brilliantly articulate (and addictively entertaining) deaf professor whose expression via French sign language is compared to a formalist 'oralism' teacher who develops speaking skills in children through repetitive exercises. ( A child playing the 'pacman' video game via modulated voice response is a memorable scene)
- The irony between painstaking attempts of the deaf to adapt to the hearing world, and the hearing world's facile efforts (and sometimes, facile tears) - readily manifested and often lacking sincerity or depth - is provocatively brought out.
- In the Q&A session, Philibert indicated that apart from making an effort to understand the world of deaf by being with them, filming for 9 months, he was drawn to the similarities between sign language and film. A scene well-articulated in sign language could well be an effective set of picture boards. A screenplay in sign language.