Jun 01, 2022
It’s AccessAbility Day here in Ottawa (AccessAbility Week in Canada) and the theme is “Intersectionality - celebrating the diversity within our community.” In support of this notion, OPL would like to highlight some new materials purchased in the spirit of accessibility and inclusivity. Check out this list of DVDs that feature American Sign Language (ASL). Some have a little and some are completely in ASL – with accommodations for the ASL impaired of course! Scroll to the end of the list for some ASL language learning DVDs and kits.
DVDs featuring ASLby Steacy_Library
Here are some movies that feature ASL and some language learning materials on DVD -- more to come! Some have a little and some are completely in ASL. Do an ADVANCED search, leave everything blank and limit LANGUAGE to sign languages and FORMAT to DVD to see everything we have completely in ASL.
- Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds (William Hurt) meets Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin), a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. A romance slowly develops between the pair in spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state due in part to her difficult relationship with her mother (Piper Laurie). Matlin, who is deaf in real life, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this, her first film role.
- Dermot Mulroney brings uptight fiancée Sarah Jessica Parker to meet his zany family: irascible mom Diane Keaton, peacemaker dad Craig T. Nelson, mean-spirited sister Rachel McAdams, wise pothead brother Luke Wilson, pregnant sister Elizabeth Reazer and brother Ty Giordano, who is deaf, gay and has a black boyfriend with whom he's adopting a child. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha has a deep understanding of family dynamics: how fear and loneliness turn into anger, how long familiarity lets siblings change moods in seconds while bewildering bystanders.
- Deaf wrestler Matt Hamill (Russell Harvard) overcomes numerous obstacles on the way to becoming a three-time NCAA champion and MMA fighter.
- The Eternals, a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years, reunite to battle the evil Deviants. Lauren Ridloff plays Makkari an Eternal who can move at superhuman speed. The character is the first deaf superhero in the MCU.
- Baby, a music-loving orphan also happens to be the prodigiously talented go-to getaway driver for heist mastermind Doc. With the perfect soundtrack picked out for each and every job, Baby ensures Doc's violent, bank-robbing cronies - including Buddy, Bats and Darling - get in and out of Dodge before it's too late. He's not in it for the long haul though, hoping to nail one last job before riding off into the sunset with beautiful diner waitress Debora. Easier said than done. Baby's adopted dad is deaf and Baby communicates with him in a few scenes of the movie.
- Carole Wolfe, a deaf Indigenous woman in Saskatoon, bravely shares the story of her daughter's disappearance in 2010.
- Tony Kane plays a superhero on TV, but in real life he's just another guy who happens to be deaf, with hopes and dreams that always seem to elude him. Eight-year-old Jacob Lang, also deaf, is having a hard time in school, where he is torn between what his father thinks is "normal" and an education using sign language promoted by his mother. When Tony and Jacob's paths cross, they inspire belief in each other and in themselves. And when Tony meets Jacob's teacher, Jenny, a romance blossoms that suddenly makes Tony feel like he can do anything... even things he never dreamed was possible. In this first installment of SuperDeafy the Movie, we meet the man behind the superhero -- the man for whom everything has always felt just a little bit out of reach. But that's all about to change.
- Silver miner Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) leads a hardscrabble life with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier). When he hears about oil oozing from the ground near the Western town of Little Boston, Daniel takes his son on a mission to find their fortune. Daniel makes his lucky strike and becomes a self-made tycoon but, as his fortune grows, he deviates into moral bankruptcy. Plainview's son, H.W., who becomes Deaf as the result of an industrial accident.
- Young Helen Keller, blind, deaf, and mute since infancy, is in danger of being sent to an institution. Her inability to communicate has left her frustrated and violent. In desperation, her parents seek help from the Perkins Institute, which sends them a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" named Annie Sullivan to tutor their daughter. Through persistence and love, and sheer stubbornness, Annie breaks through Helen's walls of silence and darkness and teaches her to communicate.
- A family of four must navigate their lives in silence after mysterious creatures that hunt by sound threaten their survival. "A Quiet Place” takes place 95 percent in silence — that means barely any music or dialogue — and director and star John Krasinski said that the cast learned sign language for every line in the script.