Film / british sign language
Deaf experience platformed at sign language festival
Over the weekend, Watershed held the premiere of two deaf-led films followed by a Q&A at the Sign Festival Bristol.
The Making of Night Bloom, directed by Cathy Mager and Bob Wang and This is Deaf, produced by Signpost Productions Primary Language.
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The Making of Night Bloom is a documentary that follows Spectroscope’s international team of deaf artists as they create the world’s first 360 degree sign language projection artwork in Shanghai.
Night Bloom is the story of a mystical garden’s fight for survival, where plants grow and blossom from the fingertips of the deaf people that live there.
Created by Bristol deaf-led company Spectroscope, the film features interviews with a little-known community of deaf people in Shanghai that have been meeting weekly in the gardens of Luxun park for the past 50 years.
Deaf actor and presenter David Ellington hosted the event, and the Q&A for which he was joined by Cathy Mager, Alice Hu, An Di and Wang Xianhe.
Speaking on what the project is about, artistic director of the documentary Cathy Mager said: “Night in Bloom is a metaphor for the deaf experience. It’s about sharing hidden stories from strange places with wider audiences.”
It’s about “Bringing people together so that no-one feels isolated.
“I think sign language is beautiful, it’s time to show that talent and not let it be hidden anymore.”
During the premiere, four different interpreters were used for the different languages: British sign language, Chinese sign language, international sign language and one for visual impairments – photo: Hannah Massoudi
As sign language is different depending on which country you visit, with often differences in regional signs, Alice, who uses Chinese sign language (CSL) and Cathy, who uses British sign language (BSL), had to adapt to be able to communicate effectively.
Alice says: “We tried to unpack things, perhaps using signs from an international signing repertoire, but we still experienced some barriers. But they were eventually successful when Alice started to pick up more BSL, meaning she is now proficient in six sign languages.
“Communication has been through written English, there are some cultural contexts that have caused some misunderstanding which is the nature of cultural differences.
“But we’ve persevered and actually through the whole process, we’ve realised the richness of our respective national cultures, but also the richness that we experience in sign language, and how we’re able to construct meaning in sign language.
“That’s really enabled us to produce this piece of work, and it’s been a real pleasure to work with Kathy and the power of communicating in a visual language, and its really been a bond strengthening experience.”
Whilst we’re deep in edit here’s a throwback to our Night Bloom rehearsal last month in Shanghai. The artists have been collaborating to explore bio-diversity through dance and sign #throwbackthursday #deaf #signlanguage #deafdance #deafculture #china #chinadance #shanghai pic.twitter.com/4KzfqCujBr
— Spectroscope (@SpectroscopeArt) April 18, 2024
As the film is made in Shanghai, Kathy was able to experience what life I like for a deaf person in China, and in turn when the film came to the UK, Alice got to experience the same.
In China, they say that deaf people have to be very reliant on technology, because the number of sign language interpreters in Shanghai is in the single figures. With jobs for those in the community very limited.
Both Cathy and her contemporary Alice Hu acknowledge that there were challenges in the making of the project, but more often than not that was created by other people’s perceptions of what a deaf person can do.
On putting together the documentary and bringing it to investors, Cathy says, “We’ve got experience of delivering these projects, but the they couldn’t get over the idea that we would be in charge of the money and we’d be in charge of the planning and the health and safety.
“They couldn’t conceptualise that. What was funny is we meet with museums managers, and we’d hold meetings with them, and they were shocked.
“They would never expect that we would be deaf. They thought that we would be hearing people running projects for the deputy school. Remember that they were just trembling, they weren’t sure what to do, or what was going on.”
She continues that then turned into a Deaf Awareness session, but ultimately, the outcomes were positive and they were able to get projections of the project on their buildings. It’s incredible to see how you know how, how change could be.”
“Where you experience failure, there are always other ways. There are always other doors that can be pushed open.”
Host David Ellington – photo: Hannah Massoudi
Sign Festival took place across venues Watershed and the Bristol Beacon. The festival programme included a variety of exhibitions, film screenings and British Sign Language (BSL) performances of music and comedy from local and national deaf performers.
Audience of our sold out Cinema 1 screening kicking off the Sign Festival Bristol weekend – you can feel the excitement in the room! Thank you @ace_national for the support. Check out @Bristol_Beacon for all the Festival events over at their place too! pic.twitter.com/Uj3Ei5e6xy
— Watershed (@wshed) October 18, 2024
Main photo: Hannah Massoudi
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