Went to see “Deaf Jam” this evening (and no, I don’t mean Def Jam), a documentary about a young Israeli woman, Aneta Brodski. Aneta is deaf, lives in New York and makes poetry with American Sign Language. Worth catching (if you’re in Wellington that is – more about the Documentary Film Festival here). Seeing poetry performed as a visual language was very cool – all about making shapes and stories with your hands. The film also shows her writing and performing in collaboration with a hearing Palestinian poet Tahani Salah. Well worth getting along to (2 more shows in Wellies). Local poets entertained us with a live reading beforehand.
There are two other poetry-themed films in the festival: “We are Poets“, about young slam poets from Leeds in the UK who compete in the international slam poetry competition in the US, and “Lemon” about Lemon Anderson, a poet, actor and ex-con who grew up in New York, and was over here for the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival recently.
In lieu of a Tuesday poem, here’s a link to Aneta Brodsky and Tahani Salah performing.
Wonderful! Must check out this film. Thanks for posting this — looks very worthwhile. I love the idea of poetry moving like this, with the hands and whole body.
If I hadn’t seen it I would never have imagined how good it would be. so much energy and expression in the interpretation of the words. Wow!
Thanks for telling me about the film, Janis. I’ll keep an eye out for this at the video store during the holidays.