Expired March 4, 2021 5:59 AM
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Renowned for its depiction of Black Deaf lives, Zeinabu irene Davis’s exquisite 1999 film stars Michelle Banks, founder of Onyx Theatre Company in New York City, the first Deaf theatre company for actors of color. The film tells the stories of two Black couples—each, a deaf woman and a hearing man—falling in love at the start and end of the 20th century. As both couples draw closer, they must also navigate the intertwined—and enduring—forces of racism, ableism, and economic disparity. Using title cards, photographic montages, and reenactments of early Black silent films, Davis charts a new path for narrative film, one that embodies an ethos of accessibility by embracing the endless aesthetic possibilities of cinema itself.


Presented as part of This Set of Actions is a Mirror, multipart look at expressions of disability culture and politics in artists’ moving image.


Related programs:


New Channels of Access

Multiple artists, 1995-2018, USA and Germany, ca 72 minutes, open captions

Streaming February 22–28


Panel discussion with Dustin Gibson, Robert McRuer, and Liza Sylvestre, moderated by Minh Nguyen

Thursday, February 25, 7:00 p.m. CT

This event will have live captions and ASL interpretation.


[Image: In this black and white image, a Black woman, the actress Michelle Banks, has braided hair in a ponytail, metal hoop earrings, a necklace with beads and a face pendant, and a sleeveless button-down shirt. Her right hand is raised near her face and her hand is a little blurry--implying Sign Language movement. She is looking at the face of a man whose back is positioned toward the camera so that we cannot see his face. He has on a dark shirt and a hat and he is staring back at her. They stand inside of a room with patterned wallpaper and white wainscoting.]

  • Year
    1999
  • Runtime
    95 minutes
  • Language
    American Sign Language, English
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Zeinabu irene Davis
  • Cast
    Michelle A. Banks, John Earl Jelks