For the past four years the British Deaf Association have been working to bring their extensive film and video collection back to life.
Following a successful appeal to the Heritage Lottery Fund and other generous contributions, over 600 films and videos have been preserved and are now being made fully-accessible for the first time.
As part of this project, the BDA commissioned Flashing Lights Media to create Power in Our Hands – a landmark documentary that uses this newly digitised archive footage to explore the secret history and heritage of the Deaf community in the UK.
Rather than focusing on medical definitions of hearing loss, Power in Our Hands presents Deaf people as an active and resilient community that has long campaigned for its language to be recognised.
From the social scenes of the 1930s, to the 2000 march supporting BSL recognition, this documentary gives people a glimpse into Deaf culture that is mostly hidden from the hearing world.
Dr Terry Riley OBE, Chair of the British Deaf Association said: “To see this old film footage is an emotional occasion for me. For many years, I never really knew or saw my language on screen. So to be able to sit down and see BSL on a par with any other language is a wonderful thing. This film will give the Deaf community a feeling of history and sense of pride.”
The film has had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from both audiences and cinemas, and is now programmed to play in over 30 venues across the UK.
For screening details, please visit: www.bda.org.uk/power-in-our-hands
All of the BDA’s newly digitised material is available through SHARE: The Deaf Visual Archive where users can view old photographs and footage as well as upload their own videos or images: www.sharedeafarchive.org
Jemma Buckley is the BDA’s Project Manager for the Film Heritage Project.
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Aaron Makepeace
February 25, 2016
After seeing a presentation by Joe Collins at my deaf club in medway i went to see “the power in our hands” at the Gulbenkian cinema last night.
It was a very powerful film that left an overwhelming sense of unease hanging over me.
It seems deaf clubs & deaf schools are closing everywhere we look, these being the very foundations of our community i think it is a troubling time indeed.
It isnt a good time to look to government for help as it is over £1.000.000.000.000 (lots of donuts) in debt coupled with an interest it cant possibly pay off, services & funding are being cut & we should expect this to get worse.
Its not all doom & gloom though, we have the ability to do anything we want on our own if we want to, tools like facebook & kickstarter have made it much easier to organise events & possibly raise funding for our own projects & clubs. Many groups, charities & events have been created using kickstarted & other “crowdfunding” platforms like it, i think it could play a role in starting new deaf clubs that i think are sorely needed. It could also help with the difficulty of starting new deaf schools.
Another thing i gathered from the Q&A session after the film with Dr Terry Riley OBE was what an incredible impact finding the deaf community is for Deafened/Hard of hearing people. One woman said it literally saved her life as she felt isolated & alone in a world of hearing people. This particularly resonated with me as i had the very same experience & would have told my story if i had the guts to stand in front of everyone haha. I will be trying to work out ways in which we can make the transition from hearing to deaf a bit smoother.
The deaf community has come on leaps & bounds, has reached terriffic heights but it seems the foundations are falling away, we need to & can stop that.I would encourage everyone to go & watch “the power in our hands”, it is a truly wonderful film & will invoke strong emotions in you.