ASL Short Films

The ASL Festival kicked off today with the ASL-beca Film Festival.

Each class from Pre-K to 7th grade was invited to submit a short film for inclusion in the 60 minute (plus) presentation. It spanned from Pre-K students fingerspelling their names and interviewing one another, to older students writing, editing & performing their original pieces. There were short films by creative teachers such as the impressive ABC story "ASL KO" by Douglas Ridloff (KO=Knock Out!) as well as short stories and signed interpretations of popular music.

It was fantastic to see our students reflected in the images on the big screen - both literally and figuratively. It was a day of pride in American Sign Language and Deaf culture.

As the program was winding down there were two videos that brought tears to my eyes. I was very moved by the performances of D-PAN Deaf Performing Artists Network. First as they signed the Christina Aguilera song Beautiful.

You can view it by clicking here. Check it out because it is, beautiful indeed!

The other stellar performance was D-PAN's take on John Mayer's Waiting On The World To Change.

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Powerful!