Lively and illuminating, filmmaker Judy Lieff's PBS-aired POV documentary Deaf Jam focuses on the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, NY, where high school students become the beneficiaries of a grant to pursue American Sign Language poetry writing. Incorporating signing, body movement, hand gestures, and facial expressions, ASL performance poetry emphasizes images over words. The combination of expressive freedom and unique discipline proves a winner for the students who absolutely shine here, including Aneta Brodski, who is a human dynamo but worries about what will happen to her once she graduates from Lexington and faces the real world without the security of her deaf peers. Aneta's ASL poems draw cheers from supporters, but things are different when she and fellow students enter a mainstream poetry slam competing with hearing teens. Deaf Jam is as much about the future for Aneta and other deaf kids once the grant money runs out and choices have to be made. A wonderful bonus here is archival footage of Allen Ginsberg enjoying an ASL interpretation of his classic poem "Howl." Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)
Deaf Jam
(2011) 70 min. DVD: $150: high schools; $195: public libraries; $295: colleges & universities. New Day Films. PPR. Volume 29, Issue 3
Deaf Jam
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