Last Thursday, I had the privilege of spending several hours in a Church in central Leeds watching the BDA’s archive films of the Deaf community through the years.
Many of the films showed Deaf people looking posh and dressed up (far smarter than I’ve ever looked!) at official functions. There was also footage from days out and conferences.
The earliest footage dated back to the 1930s, with more recent footage from around 20 years ago showing a visit to the BDA conference from Princess Diana.
The beauty of a lot of this footage is that even in the earliest clips, you can see what people are signing to one another and can even sometimes follow conversations in the background!
In clips of hearing people, the fact there’s no sound means this wouldn’t be possible – and it makes this collection of films even more valuable.
The BDA is organising screenings around the country and is hoping that people will help spot and point out who is in the clips. At the Leeds screening, one woman spotted her grandfather, another spotted her father, while some of the older members of the audience pointed out their friends.
In one clip, four Deaf men teased each other in front of the cameras, and managed to make us all laugh. There are a host of other screenings in Yorkshire alone, organised by Samantha Allen.
If you’re in or near Yorkshire, make sure you go along, or go to http://www.bda.org.uk/Events to find out about other screenings elsewhere.
Here’s a list of the Yorkshire screenings below:
Venue: Calderdale Deaf Association, 4 St James Road, Halifax
Date: Thursday 2nd October 2014
Time: 1.00pm – 3.00 pm
Venue: Bradford Deaf Club, 25 Hallfield Road, Bradford, BD1 3RP
Date: Friday 3rd October 2014
Time: 7.30pm – 10.00 pm
Venue: Richmond Hill Social Club, Railway Street, Saxton Gardens, LS9.
Date: Tuesday 7th October 2014
Time: 11.30pm – 1.00 pm
Venue: Leeds Involving People, Ground Floor Unit 8, Gemini Park, Sheepscar Way, Leeds, LS7 3JB
Date: Wednesday 8th October 2014
Time: 11am
Venue: Hull Deaf Centre, 63 Spring Bank, Kingston-upon-Hull, HU3 1AG
Date: Tuesday 14th October 2014
Time: 3.30 – 8.00 pm
Venue: Over 55 Club at Bradford Deaf Club, 25 Hallfield Road, Bradford, BD1 3RP
Date: Wednesday 22nd October 2014
Time: 11.00am – 12.00 pm
Venue: Darlington
Date: Tuesday 28th October 2014
Time: 6 – 8pm.
For further information or want to be kept up to date check the BDA website on:
http://www.bda.org.uk/Events
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1948liz
September 30, 2014
Aw, what a lovely idea and a good way to keep deaf culture in the forefront.
Tim
September 30, 2014
What?! You mean on this occasion, hearing people are disabled but Deaf people are not?
Back to the drawing board, medical modelers and orallists, eh?
Cathy
September 30, 2014
As the years pass by, people will be sad to watch such footage. Sign Language is undoubtedly becoming a dying art.
The younger generations are signing less and less in direct relation to the systematic advances in technology, which allow deaf people access to sound and thereby the English Language.
It will be very nostalgic to look back on sign language footage such as this. We can be sad and disappointed at the inevitable decline of a cultural deaf language.
Is it possible to save it? Personally, I dont think it is as the advances in technology and Science overtake us. There will always be deaf people who will want to be a part of these advances and take advantage of the Science that opens up their world to a plethora of sounds they have either forgotten or never knew!
This is borne out by the recent u tube videos of young people, even babies whose faces show exclamation, shock, wonder and surprise at the sudden sounds and voices being delivered to them through the wonderful Cochlear implants!
Who would have thought that the face of the deaf world would change irrevocably, even just 25 years ago? As the mark of CI’s make “quiet history” in the world, I don’t think those developing technology for the benefit of deaf people, had the hindsight to realise that they would unwittingly banish sign language to “a slow death” in the history books.
I, myself, thought sign language would start to “die” but not as fast as it actually is! Friends who work supporting deaf children lament the fact that they are not signing and are almost panicking at the situation, not to mention sad.
Naturally, no child can be forced to sign anymore than a deaf child can be forced to speak! Although it would be nice for deaf children to be bilingual, this footage shows how sign language is only really required when people can hear nothing, but as current CI’s circumvent this problem, speech becomes dominant and sign language redundant, even though CI’s do not make a deaf person hearing!
It would be lovely to continue to store such archives for future generations of deaf children to view and ponder how their lives may have been, had Scientists never intervened and allowed them access to sound!
Alison
October 5, 2014
You forgot to mention that a boy saw his great-grandfather too! 😉