Katie Frueh

A locally made film bridges the gap and speaks to the Deaf and the sign impaired.

    As the first film to target both hearing and Deaf audiences alike, ‘Universal Signs’ understands the significance of hearing through another’s ears.  The story is told through the eyes and ears of a protagonist who happens to be Deaf.

    “It’s definitely a movie experience for the hearing audience as they have never seen something like this; and that was really the goal: to put them in someone else’s shoes.  It’s very rare to get the chance at a movie theater to be in someone else’s world,” said writer and director Ann Calamia.

    Students who study ASL at the collegiate level also find the film “fascinating and enlightening.”

    “Personally, it was interesting for me to watch the movie entirely in captions and think about how this is the way Deaf people watch movies - by reading along via captions,” said Rochester Institute of Technology senior Lori Craig. “I like their slogan of ‘captioned for the hearing’ because it really turns the tables on how most hearing people view Deaf people - as people who can't hear and need accommodations to get through life - and there's so much more than that.”

    It is a film unique to its kind because of its wide mainstream targeted audience.

    “Other silent films that aren’t captioned and aren’t really meant for a hearing audience make our film unique.  Our movie bridges the gap between hearing culture and Deaf culture, said producer Catherine Miller, “So it’s the first film that really has an audience who is [both] hearing and Deaf.”

    Keeping the authentic nature of American Sign Language (ASL) throughout the film was important to Miller and Calamia.

    “One of the things that made our movie different then other films is that we wanted our movie to be really authentic so that a Deaf person could watch it and think wow, they really know what they’re talking about,” said Miller.

    For about a year, the staff worked in conjunction with an ASL consultant Robert DeMayo who took the script and transliterated it into ASL taking into account the different backgrounds of the characters “which means that when a Deaf person is watching it, they actually get a little more out of it,” said Calamia, “It’s the idea of having a different dialect.  So through sign language, they are able to pick up different nuances of the characters.”

    There are as many dialects of sign language as there are spoken languages around the world. 

    “There’s something called a Deaf interpreter, which is a really interesting concept,” said Calamia, “A Deaf interpreter’s job is to take gestural sign language and interpret it into American Sign Language, and then the ASL interpreter would translate it into English.”

    Sign language may also have different “accents” depending on where in the world it is signed.

    “We have signs in Philadelphia that they do not have anywhere else, so it was important to make sure that the signs could be understood by the majority of deaf people,” said Calamia, “We wanted the deaf people to not have to rely on the captions [but rather] watch and enjoy the movie in their native language.”

    Organizing communication on set was vital in order to ensure that everyone was on the same page.

    “We had a totally mixed set with hearing crew and Deaf crew as well as hearing actors and Deaf actors,” said Miller, “Relaying communication was really important to Ann because you don’t ever want to leave anybody out.  The Deaf crew was just as much a part of the crew as anybody else.” 

The set had pens and paper everywhere so communication could always be maintained through a common denominator: written English.

    “That was one thing they had in common, if they couldn’t sign or read lips, both can write English,” said Calamia.

All of the characters in the film who were Deaf were played by Deaf actors or actresses and incorporated not only their native language (ASL) but also their own culture.  These opportunities are usually otherwise unavailable to Deaf actors and actresses.

    “It’s a film that incorporates Deaf culture which is [something that is] important for Deaf and Hard of hearing individuals, said Calamia, “It is not a physiological condition, but a different type of culture.”  According to Miller, one of the goals in producing this film was to get more Deaf actors and actresses in Hollywood and to give them equal opportunity to work. 

    The sense of localness is also relevant throughout the film.  Writer and director Ann Calamia is the daughter of former physics teacher here at Souderton, Mr. Ben Calamia.  The film was also shot locally with various scenes in Philadelphia including Drexel University, The University of the Arts, Hamilton Hall at The University of the Arts, the Mayfair Diner, Our Lady of Ransom Church in northeast Philadelphia as well as a local artist in Bucks County.