"Visual Lyrics" is a 40 minute
documentary
video about
ASL interpreting for performing arts. It considers the perspectives of
all those associated with stage interpreting. The film reveals
performance interpreting as an art form in it's own right.
The documentary was shot over a 2 year
period at
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival near Hillsdale, NY. The festival has had a
team of interpreters for more than 15 years and has come to attract a
small community of Deaf patrons.
This Event was captured by Johnny Robinson from
Rochester Institute of Technology, assisted by a student crew. Multiple cameras captured ASL
interpreters on stage,
with the performers in the background. Four interpreters are followed
as they interpret a variety of music, poetry & storytelling.
Interviews with those interpreters reveal the incredibly arduous task
of processing, on the fly, poetic content from one syntactical
structure to another. Deaf patrons, using ASL, articulately express their
experience and opinions. Musicians discuss their fascinating
perspective on sharing the stage with interpreters.
All spoken commentary is open captioned
for Deaf
viewers and all on-screen ASL is voice interpreted for the
Signing-Impaired. Johnny Robinson, is a Hearing professor at RIT (Rochester Institute of
Technology) in Rochester, New York. RIT is also the home of NTID (the
National Technical Institute for the Deaf). Johnny teamed up with RIT
interpreter Jennifer M. Horak to make this film.
There is a second film consisting only
of
interpreted performances titled "Visual Lyrics Falcon Ridge". This
performance film shot in 2003 is also 40 minutes; containing complete
unedited songs by six Falcon Ridge interpreters.