Through Deaf Eyes

Watching the PBS-aired Through Deaf Eyes, an engaging history of deaf culture from the 19th century through the present, I was surprised to learn that over 90% of all deaf people have hearing parents, and intrigued by the story of the lesser-known aspects of communications pioneer Alexander Graham Bell's life—a man in favor of eugenics—who mounted a misguided crusade against sign language with his theoretically well-meaning “speaking only” deaf schools, making him a very controversial figure in the eyes of the deaf (Bell's famous invention, the telephone, couldn't be used by deaf people for 90 years, until TTY machines came along). Narrated by Stockard Channing, filmmakers Lawrence R. Hott and Diane Garey's engaging production combines talking head (and signing hand) commentary from a variety of deaf and hearing interviewees (including actress Marlee Matlin, whose Oscar-wining performance in Children of a Lesser God inspired the deaf community, even though her decision to speak rather than sign at the Oscars disappointed many) together with archival footage and stills, as well as interposed short films by deaf filmmakers. Designed to illustrate various aspects of deaf life, the shorts are—unfortunately—somewhat amateurish one-note efforts that also tend to interrupt the narrative. Still, this minor quibble aside, Through Deaf Eyes, which was inspired by Gallaudet University's “History Through Deaf Eyes” exhibition (and includes a fair amount of material on the first university to cater exclusively to deaf students—not all of it favorable, as illustrated by a 1988 student uprising that led to the hiring of the school's first deaf president) is often fascinating, especially in some of the more off-the-beaten-track segments (such as a look at the deaf rock band Beethoven's Nightmare). If the film sometimes seems a wee bit overzealous in its celebration of deafness (such as Matlin's assertion that she wouldn't want to be able to hear) or fails to address the controversial subject of cochlear implants with anywhere near the insightfulness of the Oscar-winning Sound and Fury (VL-5/01), Through Deaf Eyes nevertheless deserves well-earned kudos for what it does accomplish: a wide-ranging and long overdue popular overview of deaf culture in a country where, according to statistics, 35 million people are hard of hearing and 300,000 are profoundly deaf. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)