Michael Davis: Producing ‘Jesus,’ the new Deaf Missions movie made entirely in American Sign Language (BSL)

I was born and raised in California. During my journey, I explored my acting abilities in theatre and that gave me the opportunity to travel all over the world doing performances. I eventually got into Broadway and did Huck Finn with Deaf West for two years and that led me to filming opportunities.

My experience in the entertainment business during the 2000’s as a Deaf person had more barriers than others, especially as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color.) So I decided to form my own production company, GUM (God Uplifts Me) Vision Studio. And here I am now.

The film “Jesus” was a collaborative project between myself and Joseph Josselyn. It was my dream to create a film about Jesus and I found another person that wanted the same thing. We stayed together and made sure this project would happen.

Joseph Josselyn developed the script with his amazing creativity and he worked with my creativity as producer/Director of Photography into the script. We understood each other’s vision.

We also had Eric Calbert as our Co-DOP/Lighting as well. We worked together to build this film along with an amazing cast and crew who believed in our film.

Reflecting on the inspiration for the movie, I grew up in a Christian home and noticed that there were not any Jesus films that were performed in ASL and by deaf actors. Many people do not have the full understanding of Jesus and his purpose. We felt it was important that we created a film that will help people see and understand who Jesus is.

There are other short clips and films with an in-vision interpreter embedded into the film. But, this is the first film in the world that features Jesus and his life with Deaf actors and ASL.

This story is 85% aligned with the Bible story and the other 15% incorporates deaf culture, ASL, deaf tendencies such as tap on shoulder, waving, signing, and behavior.

For example, for most of the duration of the movie, the actors do not sign Jesus with middle fingers to palm because that sign is established to indicate his crucifixion, which doesn’t happen until the end.

So, we used the Y handshape crossed at wrists held in neutral space, diverge away from each other, while wrists twist outward where palms face outward.

To produce the film I was also the Casting Director and we put out open casting calls. We were able to get interested submissions, but we also reached out to people to ask for their interest in auditioning.

The film was also directed by Joseph Josselyn. He has a great eye and vision. Filming went well even though we had our ups and downs, but we managed to stick together and push through. It was filmed all over, including Bulgaria.

We faced several challenges but one example during the very first filming week was where we were at a filming location that was remote and without wifi and no signal.

We had to drive a few miles to the base camp to physically retrieve things we needed since we couldn’t text. Obviously, we were not able to use walkie talkies, so we had no choice but to drive to an area that had a signal.

However, we got through the hardest part in the beginning that made us experts for the other filming locations.

Another challenge for me as an individual was the fact that I tore my shoulder labrum and I still had to continue carrying filming equipment and shoot the scenes.

Then, finally, my shoulder was shaking really hard and gave out when I couldn’t hold the Steadicam. My shoulder was torn and had no strength. I had to have a surgery towards the near end of filming. That was the hardest challenge to accept and change my role in this film to continue my work with this film.

On the whole for us, we just want to share Jesus’s life and the gospel. We wanted to share the impact that Jesus had on our life and to make the film accessible with ASL which will have an impact on our Deaf community, regardless of their beliefs. The church and gospel is almost always shared through interpreters and we wanted to change that.

When asked if I am happy with the finished film, I would say true artists are never happy with their finished project. There is always room to improve. Mainly, we wish we had more time to complete our filming as well as post production. If anything we could have done differently, we would have not set a date!

However, we are truly happy that we were able to capture beautiful scenes and cannot wait to share with the community. Hopefully, this film will lead to more filming projects. We would love to do more biblical stories, but in modern times. We want to create films that impact lives, give hope, and build their character.

To conclude, I want to share a personal story. My mother is still reeling with God’s plan. I have a hearing family. I had a wonderful life with my family and we are very close.

At one point when I was a young boy, I asked my mother, “Why did God make me deaf?” My mother couldn’t give me an answer but it came to her to say, “Maybe God made you Deaf so you can make an impact in the Deaf community.”

With this film, the answer came to her. This film will make an impact on my deaf community that I hold dear to my heart. I want the world to see and understand who Jesus is through ASL.

You can find out more about the ASL “Jesus” movie here.