Departure Lounge: A Deaf Film

[MA-Caver]

This is a British film made by Deaf actors and wonderfully done. It's done largely in Sign Language and British Sign Language which is different than ASL but don't worry the film is captioned/subtitled so you're not left totally out in the dark. Watch this 1/2 hour film and tell what you think...
Enjoy

Introduction

Departure Lounge is a celebration of the friendship and deaf solidarity that develops between Sid, an ailing older man and Matt, a young hospital cleaner. Sid is angry, frightened and isolated. Neither his doctors nor his wife, Morag, seem able to help or comfort him.
Matt, is also frightened and uncertain - he has a partner, Jill, and a baby, but Matt is running away from his responsibilities.
It is their deafness that creates the initial bond between the two men. Matt breaks down Sid's isolation by taking him up on to the roof of the hospital and together they create a sort of deaf club in the sky. Here they sit and talk, fall out and make up, speculate on the wonders of a deaf heaven, and slowly come to realise that, despite everything, each can give courage to the other.

 

[Carol]

I'll have to watch it once I land in NC. Thanks for posting it -- this sounds very interesting.

 

[Tez3]

How different is BSL to ASL? I know on MT there's differences in the written words which lead to misunderstandings!
Many television programmes here are signed as well as have subtitles, my friend is an interpreter, took her over six years including getting a university degree to become one.

 

[TKDHomeSchooler]

How different is BSL to ASL?

I don't know BSL, but I am fluent in ASL and know some Russian and Mexican sign language and they are different from each other. There are also differing signs from state to state here in the US. Consider it like the dialect difference from me in Texas and someone in KY.

I'll need to find this movie and check it out, I'll tell my Sister (who is Deaf) so she can watch it too.

ASL trivia for you all, ASL is derived from French sign language. I forget the man's name, but he was developing a sign system for France's deaf population and came over to the States to meet Galludet and they worked up ASL together. Some of the details are sketchy to me, I never had formal interpreter training, where they go in to that, I just grew up with Deaf people and picked up some trivia here and there when I was an Interpreter myself.

 

[Jade Tigress]

The film sounds very good. I'll have to watch it. I too am interested in the differences between BSL and ASL. I learned a bit of ASL when my son was a toddler. He has sensory integration disorder and at age 2 was still not talking. So we were taught some ASL by his speech therapist to cut down on communication frustration while he was learning to talk. I enjoyed it very much and wish I would have studied enough to become fluent.