SASL Newsletter - Spring 2020 Issue Issue 17 - Spring 2020
The Power of ASL
A Society Supporting Language, Literacy, and
Performing Arts in the Signed Modality
Spring 2020
A Newsletter of the Society for American Sign Language
Issue 17
American Sign Language and
Deaf Folklife in Home Movies
By Ted Supalla and Matthew Malzkuhn
When thinking about the earliest films in the Deaf community, the ASL/Deaf Studies scholars
will likely refer to George Veditz's widely acclaimed ASL oratory rendition of "Preservation of Sign
Language" that was produced by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) in the early 1910s.
NAD raised substantial funds to produce a series of films during that time, which is over 100 years
ago. However, we would like to state that there are other film types to consider for the ASL and Deaf
Folklife research. Home movies are targeted for discussion in this article.
Some ASL/Deaf Studies scholars have complained about how little is known about Deaf
people and their lives over the years. The NAD films are clearly precious, but more would be better.
We need to respond to this. It is not because of a lack of materials but instead due to our monolithic
bias for pedagogical value in sign language materials, thus overlooking the potential of the
grassroots films made by Deaf individuals themselves. Such films are in the category of home-
quality amateur films, ranging from family-based to local community productions. These are people
that essentially are self-taught videographers or cinematographers who most likely picked it up as a
hobby at the camera shop or from friends. So, even though you will see a difference in the quality of
the footage created, it is still worth analysis.
The research on the home movies in the Deaf community began with the first author of this
article, Supalla, who is responsible for the Deaf Folklife Film Collection, based on his Sign
Language Research Lab at Georgetown University. This collection has its start with a collaborative
project that the first author had with the pioneering Deaf filmmaker Charles Krauel of Chicago,
Illinois. Krauel had made home movies of the everyday events in the Deaf community from 1925 to
1940. Krauel's accomplishments inspired the first author to produce a documentary video that is
currently distributed by DawnSignPress. The video includes the first author's 1980 interview with
Krauel, who was 93 years old at the time. Many clips from Krauel's own work, as shown in the
video, provide unprecedented and valuable insights on ASL and the Deaf folklife.
For a better understanding of home movies in the Deaf community, Supalla and the second
author of this article, Malzkuhn, set up a booth in Baltimore during the 2013 convention hosted by
the Deaf Seniors of America. Based on our survey of 80 people with a questionnaire related to their
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The Power of ASL
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Spring 2020 – Issue 17