RIT/NTID Links at Deaf Rochester Film Festival
"The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox," a two-hour documentary by Miriam Lerner about the evolution of ASL poetry, is one of several films with RIT/NTID connections to be shown this weekend at the Deaf Rochester Film Festival at NTID and other locations. See full-size photo
The third Deaf Rochester Film Festival begins this week (March 26-29, 2009) with dozens of movie screenings in several venues around Rochester, including the Robert F. Panara Theatre at NTID on Saturday evening and Sunday.
The films deemed the best new movies by deaf and hard-of-hearing filmmakers or with deaf themes come from around the globe. But several have strong ties to RIT and NTID.
Sunday's featured film is Signs of the Time, produced and directed by Don Casper, who previously worked at NTID. He now works with Crystal Pix, a Fairport production company. The one-hour documentary examines whether the use of hand signals used by baseball umpires was developed by legendary deaf baseball player William "Dummy" Hoy. The documentary features period recreations shot at Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, as well as interviews of several baseball legends.
It is fitting that the first public screening of Signs of the Time will be shown in the Robert F. Panara Theatre. Panara, 88, the first deaf faculty member at NTID, remains an avid baseball fan and historian. He is featured in the film and hopes to be involved in a discussion immediately after the 3:15 p.m. viewing.
Other familiar faces in the film are Michael Barreca, '00, who plays Dummy Hoy in the recreation (and lives in Hoy's home town of Cincinnati), and Matthew S. Moore,'83 a Hoy researcher and publisher of Deaf Life magazine.
Other festival films with RIT/NTID connections include:
- The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox, a two-hour documentary by Miriam Lerner, an interpreter at RIT/NTID, will be shown at 9 a.m. Sunday in Panara Theatre. The film is comprised primarily of archival and recent video footage of various performances and interviews of deaf poets who were experimenting with poetic devices in ASL from 1984 to 1992. Don Feigel, in NTID's Educational Design Resource Department, was videographer and editor for the film.
- See What I'm Saying, the Deaf Entertainers Documentary, is a new film by Hilari Scarl featuring four deaf entertainers, including comic C.J. Jones and Robert DeMayo, both former NTID students. It will be shown at 3 p.m. Saturday at the George Eastman House.
- Flipped and Don't, short films by RIT/NTID graduate student Kamau Buchanan, will be shown Saturday evening in Panara Theatre. Flipped is about a man who wakes up deaf one morning, and Don't is a drama featuring several RIT/NTID students and staff members.
- The Red Riding Deafhood, film by Barbara Di Giovanni, '90, will be shown during a children's program at 11:50 a.m. Sunday at NTID.
- Worry: A Jewish Deaf-Blind Survivor Shares Her Story is a 30-minute documentary by NTID faculty member Patti Durr. It will be shown Sunday at 1:20 p.m. in Panara Theatre.
- Onalee's Journey, a half-hour documentary by RIT/NTID graduate Ruthie Jordan, follows Onalee Cooper, who as a deaf girl, grew up unaware of much of her Native American heritage. It will show at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Panara Theatre.
Aspiring deaf filmmakers are encouraged to attend a writer's workshop from 10 a.m. to noon Friday at Writers and Books, 740 University Ave. Aaron Kelstone, a faculty member in NTID's Cultural and Creative Studies Department, will lead a workshop, "Film and Deaf Writers: Crossing the Textual Divide Workshop," to enable deaf writers and filmmakers to find common ground for interaction that will result in successful films. Admission is $10 at the door.
And artwork created by deaf artists - many faculty or graduates of RIT/NTID - is on display at two galleries. "Variety" is a collection of artwork by deaf artists on display at the Milton H. and Ray B. Ohringer Gallery on the second floor of the Joseph F. and Helen C. Dyer Arts Center. The second collection is at Before Your Quiet Eyes bookstore, 439 Monroe Ave., beginning Friday through April 11. It is open Wednesday from 4-6 p.m., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 4-7 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Admission to the Saturday evening movies in Panara Theatre is free, but tickets are urged. Sunday's admission is $15. All tickets should be reserved on-line at: www.DeafRochesterFilmFestival.org. Any remaining tickets not sold on-line may be purchased at the door.