film

The Words of Silence

User Rating	1 2 3 4 5
Producer(s)	RTSI- Televisione suizzera
Director(s)	Luciano Rogolini, Silvia Bezzola
Release Date	1980
Runtime	41 min
Format(s)	video
Language(s)	English
Youth Media	no

Film Description

Meet four extraordinary people who happen to be deaf; an award-winning actress, a percussionsit, a flamenco dancer and a mime. These talented performes reveal the unique landscape of the deaf, where silence is made of colors, perceptions and vibrations. Sign language and exceptional visual sensitivity overcome the absence of sound.

From the interview and performances, one realizes that deafness is not only a medical diagnosis but a cutlural phenomenon as well. Emmanuelle Laborit, the actress, points out that sign lanugage uses not only the hands but the face and the body and the surrounding space. She has worked in the theater with hearing acors, an experience that enhanced botg her own skills as well as the skills o f the hearing actors. They learned to communicate more with their bodies and become less dependenton on words for expression.