Teresa Garratty: Deaf representation behind the camera is vital

Depending on what Deaf circles you run in, you may or may not have heard about a charity that are looking for applicants to be part of a video career campaign.

From what I’ve been told the career campaign is aimed at young Deaf people, to encourage them to pursue the industries of their choosing. It is after all run by a society that provides services for Deaf children across the nation.

This sounds great doesn’t it? Yeah, that’s what I thought too until I was contacted with the prospect of a job offer. At first I was asked if I wanted to apply for a role in the camera department or HMU (hair & make up) etc. As a self shooting director and camera operator, I jumped at the chance to gain more camera experience.

This is where the first red flag popped up. The production company (Not Deaf led btw) informed me that they weren’t in fact looking for a camera team as “Francis”, the director (not their real name) had his own on-board.

OK, that’s not that bad, I don’t mind assistant roles where appropriate. They then tell me that they have a great idea to spin the camera around and show all the deaf crew (assistants), to encourage deaf children to work in the media industry.

Again, OK. Sounds like a nice idea but then…

Hold on. Who is this “Francis”? A Deaf director I’ve yet to meet? I’m quite well integrated in the Deaf media scene but it’s not impossible just highly improbable that I haven’t heard of him before. I asked anyway.

Guess what? “Francis” is a hearing director and his camera crew, most probably hearing too. Cue all the red flags.

As I said before, I’m well integrated in Deaf media, I know there are Deaf directors out there (producers too!), I’m one of them. So why, on a career campaign video, aimed at encouraging young Deaf people, have they sought out one of us?

I’m not against working with hearing crew, in fact I encourage collaboration when it’s done right and fairly. This however was a different thing entirely. This was the act of giving work away to a hearing person, when it was far better suited to a Deaf person. I contacted the production company to ask, why?

At first, they claimed that a hearing director (and I quote) “won out due to his specific experience”.

I think that what we have right here, ladies and gentlemen is ABLEISM. In other words, in my opinion, they gave the job to Francis because, even though he’s not Deaf, his hearing privilege has given him “better” industry experience.

If only there were a way for more Deaf directors to gain more experience..?! The mind boggles.

When I bought to their attention, just how wrong and hypocritical it is to use a hearing director and camera team on a campaign about successful deaf professionals, did they apologise? Did they spot the obvious mistake? Of course not.

Shockingly, the next set of excuses came from the charity itself. I sent them a quick list of Deaf directors I found via a five min search on the BSL Zone website. They said they contacted 6 of them but they were either busy or Francis was better. More wonderful nuggets of encouragement for the kiddies.

If the first choice Deaf directors are busy does that mean YOU get to have the valuable experience and opportunity? No. A hearing director does, because their able bodied privilege within the industry has bagged him more credits than you.

Another thinly veiled cover they kept trying to push was the fact that the director had worked with deaf people before. That apparently makes him an adequate role model for the Deaf children the campaign is aimed at. I can guarantee you that all the Deaf directors I know have worked with far more Deaf talents, so why did that not “win out” on this Deaf job campaign aimed at Deaf youth?

I also tried reaching out to “Francis” himself, I had hoped that maybe he just wasn’t aware of what he was doing. Perhaps, since he’s not Deaf himself and has no idea what it’s like to be a Deaf person perusing a media career. He doesn’t understand that these jobs, that are tailor made for Deaf directors are rare opportunities for us to build on our experience and portfolios. Unfortunately, he wasn’t interested and simply told me that if I had a moral issue, I should take it up with the charity.

This campaign could have been amazing. It could have been littered from top to bottom with talented, professional Deaf role models for all to see. Sadly, it’s not. Sure, they’ll have some Deaf people working on it, we’ve all gotta eat. They’ll spin the camera around to show you this. A little smoke screen of underhanded tokenism, false hope and lies. Palm off the small jobs to the Deaf crew but leave those higher up roles for the big boys that can hear. A little sigh of relief as they tick the box on the diversity form.

This is something that used to be more common in front of the camera. Deaf roles in Deaf films would be played by hearing actors. They would claim that they knew a bit of sign language, had a deaf family member or could “learn” what being deaf is like and think of all the publicity and awareness they’ll bring in!

This is of course complete nonsense. When you’re working on a project that calls for Deaf life experience to be passed onto others (such as this campaign), a hearing person just isn’t going to cut it, no matter how many Deaf people they’ve worked with before.

I’m sure there are many actors out there, with tons of industry experience and credits, but nowadays, they wouldn’t dare replace the Deaf on-screen talent with a hearing actor. All because you can see it, but behind the camera those values are not upheld.

It’s time we started seeing this attitude and standard spread off screen too. If you look closely, you’ll see it in other industries as well. Theatre shows about the oppression of Deaf people, directed by hearing people. The cruel irony of life imitating art behind the rose tinted curtain.

What if we look at this with a different minority involved?

Is it right to have a man direct a film aimed at teaching women about feminism?

Is it right to have a white person direct a film aimed at People of Colour about racism?

Why should it be any different for deafness and disability?

There is something seriously wrong here.

My emails to them remain ignored now, how ironic that in the end it’s the hearing people who won’t listen to reason.

It would have been easy for me to accept the camera assistant job, keep my mouth shut with an “I’m alright Jack” attitude. Not this time, not this charity and not this campaign. It’s serious poor taste from the charity and I have no idea how they can continue to justify this travesty with excuses, because that’s all they are.

The whole campaign rides on the belief that Deaf people are more than capable but they’ve blown it before it’s begun.

The truth is that if you’re Deaf and want a career, you’ll have to fight tooth and nail for it. The truth is you will be overlooked time and time again. The truth is that you will walk amongst greedy, selfish wolves and some of them will be concealed in sheep’s clothing. They’ve made their own campaign completely redundant. In my opinion, all involved who are aware of the situation are hypocrites and should be completely ashamed of themselves.

 

Read more of Teresa’s posts (with cartoons!) by clicking here.

Teresa is a freelance film maker, photographer and full time cynic. At school, she was voted “Most likely to end up in a lunatic asylum”, a fate which has thus far been avoided. Her pet hates are telephones, intercoms and all living things. Follow her on Twitter as @TGarratty