Charlie Swinbourne: We should ask more questions of non-Deaf filmmakers making Deaf projects

Some of you will have seen a casting advert looking for a Deaf actor for a new short film which exploded onto everyone’s timelines last week after it was shared by a well known celebrity.

The deaf actor will sign and the film also has other minority themes as well.

I won’t mention the film’s name here as I don’t want to sort of directly target it. I bring this up because I’ve become increasingly troubled by some of the projects which appear on my radar as a Deaf filmmaker and as editor of this site.

Right now, in the film and TV industry, in the arts generally, there’s a big push for diversity.

Me and other D/deaf and disabled creatives are now finding opportunities opening up which used to be closed to us. Which is a very good thing.

But it also means that increasingly, people who want to make something are realising they’ll have a better chance of getting funding if there’s a diversity element to their projects – even if they themselves have little link to, or knowledge of that culture.

As editor of Limping Chicken, hardly a week goes by that I don’t get an email from a non-D/deaf filmmaker asking me to help them get funding for their film with a D/deaf character in it, by sharing their crowdfunding page, for example.

Or I’ll get asked to help them with casting a D/deaf actor by adding info to Limping Chicken’s social media or sharing it with my networks.

Others ask me for information, in some cases to answer 20 questions about D/deaf people and D/deaf culture, gained from 37 years of direct experience, to help them make their script authentic.

At first I helped nearly everyone, then as the requests dramatically increased, being a deaf filmmaker myself, I started to feel a bit uncomfortable about it all.

Why were so many non-deaf people starting to propose projects with deafness and/or sign language in them?

I began to ask people what kind of deaf involvement they had behind the scenes. In the creative or production team, for example.

Had they consulted a deaf writer, a director perhaps? Did they have a Deaf actor involved from the start? Had they done independent research?

Or had they had D/deaf experience in their lives? A D/deaf relative perhaps? Did they know any D/deaf people, had they learned to sign?

Basically I wanted to know if their interest in a deaf theme went beyond just putting a deaf character in the story and where their interest came from.

A concern for me was the possibility that I could end up effectively endorsing a project that went badly, which wouldn’t reflect well on me or this site.

It’s amazing how many people haven’t taken any of the above steps and actually reached out to any D/deaf people at all in creating their projects. Or done any of their own research. Or have any D/deaf connections in their lives.

It becomes very easy to think that they see sign language as being ‘cool’, and/or see involving a D/deaf character as a way of gaining more support for their project and increasing their chances of funding.

I’m not saying they’re necessarily bad people, some of these people may have great intentions. They may end up making a compelling piece of work which everyone is really pleased with (or they might not!).

It just doesn’t sit right, getting so many of the same types of messages from non-Deaf people all trying to do the same thing.

Something that also irks me is the fact that I’m a Deaf writer and director myself, but very few of these requests are to collaborate with me (or for that matter another D/deaf filmmaker, there are a number of us!) or have a role on any of these projects.

With the film concerned, I asked this question, whether any deaf creatives had any involvement in it.

The reply was fairly vague, but what rang alarm bells for me was that when they listed organisations they’d consulted with, one of them was an organisation which I know are actually against sign language for Deaf children – going directly against the actual message of the film they’re trying to make, since their story involves BSL.

This was a bit of a red flag for me, because it suggested that either their consulting with that organisation hadn’t been very in-depth, or that they hadn’t really consulted with them at all. And that was the only deaf-related organisation listed.

Now, I really don’t know much more about the filmmakers or the project itself. I didn’t end up helping them to share their project, I felt it was a bit risky.

But earlier this week, when I saw everyone sharing the celebrity’s post about their project, it sort of showed me how even one celebrity passing something on, which may seem ‘worthy’ to them, can suddenly lend a project a kind of credibility, with very few people asking any questions about the authenticity of that project. And that kind of worried me a bit.

The film they are making may be another award-winner. It might represent a huge opportunity for a Deaf actor. Or it might do neither of those things.

The people behind it might be the nicest people in the world, with a genuine interest in raising awareness of Deaf culture and empowering Deaf people. Or they may not.

I really don’t know. And for that matter, nor does anyone else. I’m sure we’ll find out further down the line!

We should be considering whether it’s possible, on some of these projects, that some cultural appropriation (which I’ve written about before concerning hearing actors playing deaf roles) may be taking place, and whether people may be looking to make their breakthrough, gain funding, or further their careers with the help of a language and culture they do not belong to, and know very little about.

It’s hard to be black and white about this, to draw a line. What’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is very hard to define.

It may depend partly on the outcome of these projects.

Perhaps it should also come down to whether D/deaf people have been empowered by the project, have their own careers been furthered? Most obviously on screen, but ideally in the team off-camera too.

Ultimately, I feel we should be casting a more critical eye on this trend and asking more questions of non-D/deaf people making projects with D/deaf characters in them.

It can be uncomfortable doing so. We don’t want to appear hostile or defensive.

But answering a few questions is the least they can do.

Just to wrap this up, I’ll tell you about an enquiry I had recently which turned out really positively. I was contacted by a children’s book publisher who was working on a book by a deaf writer. That immediately sounded good.

What made it even better was that I was then employed to be an editor of the book, reading it and giving feedback on not only the deaf elements, but also giving points about the overall story, using the experience I have developed through my scriptwriting.

The outcome of this is that I’d not only really enjoyed the experience, but I’d also gained another credit on my CV, developed another skill, and I’d actually been paid for contributing my specialist knowledge and experience.

That should happen more often.

Charlie Swinbourne is the editor of Limping Chicken, a journalist and an RTS-winning screenwriter and director. Find out more about him on his site and watch his sketch show Deaf Funny here!