JCFilms to produce several faith inspired Deaf films.
The term “Deaf Culture” is so misunderstood in Hollywood. For most, it means a particular small group of Deaf people that make their own short movies and use a communication thread or American Sign Language (ASL). For those that are Deaf, the term means personalized ownership to unlimited possibilities.
Today, JCFilms is proud to announce a new feature film program designed to empower Deaf filmmakers to create explosive new content made solely by this amazing “Deaf Culture.”
JCFilms is a faith and family production company that has produced over 30 feature films over the past seven short years. “So many deaf young people are looking for ways to get involved in filmmaking. Here, all our films will be written, produced and cast solely by deaf people,” Jason Campbell, President of JCFilms explained.
JCFilms has tapped actor, producer, and native ASL user Keith Wann, a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) to help lead the effort on continuing to provide opportunities. Wann is an original breakthrough performing ASL artist that has been performing since 2002 with several parody music videos going viral to appearances in ‘High Maintenance’, ‘Quantico’, and ‘Law and Order.’
Deaf characters have been portrayed on screen since the silent film era, but more recently more directors are casting Hearing actors in Deaf roles, assuming that learning basic signs will suffice to convey the Deaf experience. “This approach is cheating both the Hearing and Deaf communities by inaccurately depicting the reality,” Campbell said. The goal of these new films is to accurately depict Deaf Culture through films exclusively made by Deaf filmmakers and performed by Deaf actors. Production on the first film is set to be produced in the summer of 2021.
“Today, so many creative and imaginative Deaf young people are looking for ways to get involved. We hope these film productions will attract them to the process.”, Wann said.
To learn more about this program and register to be involved, please visit: https://www.jcfilms.org/deaffilm