La Famille Bélier is yet another cinematic insult to the deaf community

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/19/la-familie-belier-insult-deaf-community

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The French film La Famille Bélier opened this week in France and tells the story of a deaf family with a hearing daughter who has a talent for singing. It has been billed as a feelgood movie to rival the Oscar-nominated Amélie, and has been sold to 85 countries. But for the deaf community the film is less feelgood than feel bad, mad, and misrepresented once again.

The premise of the film, which has already been tipped for a Hollywood remake, goes like this: a hearing child grows up in a totally deaf farming family, only to have a talent for singing that her family can’t appreciate or access. Oh the irony. Certainly the experiences of hearing Codas (children of deaf adults, as they are known in the community) are of interest. They occupy a unique position, straddling two worlds with equal access to both. However, the use of music or singing as a catalyst of exploration is both tired and cliched.

It might seem groundbreaking in the mainstream world, making box offices go ker-ching as cockles warm and hearts melt, but many deaf people are cringing at the naivety of the mainstream world – and some are boycotting the film.

Hearing people’s fascination with the relationship between music and deafness just does not resonate with most deaf people. Perhaps if you’ve lost your hearing, yes, but if you were born deaf like me, it’s not something that you lose sleep over. It’s just an overplayed stereotype that deaf people have to tolerate their whole lives. Show me a deaf person who hasn’t been asked if they are bothered that they can’t hear birdsong and I’ll show you a pig with wings. Birdsong or music might be paramount to the lives of some, but it’s myopic to think that the whole world holds the same cares as you.

The irony central to La Famille Bélier is created purely to enhance jeopardy and tragedy in storytelling. It intensifies the drama, ups the stakes using a tried-and-tested method. Remember the DJ who lives for music and then goes deaf in It’s All Gone Pete Tong, the friendship between a deaf man and a blind man in the 80s comedy Hear No Evil, See No Evil, the sparkling genius mind trapped in the weak crumbling body in The Theory of Everything. At least in the case of the last, the story of Stephen Hawking is true, but wouldn’t it be much more original if someone could come up with storylines that explore deafness or disability without lazily resorting to irony?

But irony is not the only laziness in La Famille Bélier. The film uses hearing actors to play the roles of deaf characters, the result of which is an embarrassing and crass interpretation of deaf culture and sign language. Make no mistake, this is like blacking up for the Black and White Minstrel Show. Couldn’t find any deaf actors? Just get some hearing ones to wave their hands about. It shows a level of disrespect for deaf people and disregard for a genuine language with the nuances of any spoken language. In the UK there is a pool of experienced deaf actors and sign language interpreters. If the same exist in France, shouldn’t the makers of Le Famille Bélier have called upon them? And if they don’t exist, we should be asking why not.

Deaf people’s culture and experiences have long been appropriated for the fascination and entertainment of others, and in the process kneaded into a bastardisation bearing no resemblance to real-life experiences, because it is rare that deaf people are actually involved in the production process. Accurate representation of deafness is a good thing, it can entertain and educate in equal measures – but films and TV shows about deaf characters, told through a hearing lens, using hearing actors with pidgin sign language, are demeaning, depressing and cause more damage then good.

Last year a deaf storyline on BBC1’s Holby City caused outrage among deaf viewers, with the depiction of the nine-year-old daughter of a deaf man (this time played by a deaf actor) interpret complex medical information about his upcoming heart surgery. As one deaf blogger said: “5.3 million viewers will now think that deaf people should be looked after by our kids.”

Yet for all this misrepresentation there are pockets of accurate portrayal. The Ukrainian film The Tribe, released earlier this year, stars an all-deaf cast of amateur actors and has received acclaim in the deaf community. The film truly pushes at the boundaries of cinema and storytelling with all the action portrayed in sign language and no subtitles or voiceover.

In the UK, See Hear, one of the BBC’s longest-running programmes, continues to produce high-quality programming for the deaf community under the deaf leadership of series editor William Mager. In the independent sector, the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust commissions a range of programmes for the Community Channel and Film4 by deaf writers and directors. This is where you will find truer reflections of the deaf experience, with no hearing actors in deaf roles and no tired lamentations of missing music and birdsong.