Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox Film Available
This film which was shown at the Deaf Rochester Film Fest is now available for sale.
Contact Cheryl Mawhiny at camnmc@rit.edu. Eventually it will be sold through Harris Communications, but for now you can get it directly from NTID Marketing for $29.99.
This documentary is comprised primarily of archival and recent video footage of various
performances and interviews of Deaf poets who were experimenting with poetic devices in ASL from approximately 1984 - 1992. The beginning of the film gives an overview of the history of poetry as an oral form and its transformation to the written page
as a literary exercise. Interviews with deaf poets illustrate the reluctance many Deaf individuals felt to engage in what they felt was a means of expression
belonging solely to the Hearing world. Robert Panara, Bernard Bragg, Ella Mae Lentz and Clayton Valli talk about their experiences with writing and performing poetry. Allen Ginsberg's historic visit to RIT/NTID and meeting with Robert Panara served as a catalyst and inspiration to Deaf poets Patrick Graybill, Peter Cook, and Debbie Rennie. Although this documentary will appeal to artists and the general public, Deaf or Hearing, the objective is to create a record of this exciting and historic time period, which those of us in Rochester at the time were fortunate to have witnessed and in which we were participants. This time period was unprecedented and not yet replicated. Ultimately, this
film is a gift to the Deaf community, a compilation of outstanding and thought-provoking works performed by seasoned poets as well as those just starting out at the time. When the Deaf Community realized that ASL was a true language, their art and hearts could at last be shared!