Preservation of the Sign Language
About Preservation of the Sign Language
George Veditz, a former president of the National Association of the Deaf, faces the camera and signs an argument that deaf people should sign, not be pushed into speech. There are no subtitles and no intertitles. He signs large and exact, so the picture can keep the language.
Cast & crew
More about Preservation of the Sign Language
Veditz made it for the NAD in 1913, while oral schools were pressing lipreading and speech. He had lost his hearing to scarlet fever at eight. The address runs fourteen minutes. He is credited as director. In other films of his he fingerspelled so an interpreter could put the signs into English.
Themes
Look
Veditz is framed so the hands and the face stay readable for the whole address.
Preservation
A print survives. Named to the National Film Registry in 2010.
Notes
- No spoken soundtrack and no titles. The speech is only in American Sign Language.
- He chose biblical passages for the force of the signing.
- The Library of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry in 2010.
- It is one of the first motion pictures made to store ASL.
Awards
- National Film Registry (2010)
Scenes
- Veditz signs straight at the lens for fourteen minutes, with no title cards.
Also available
- Library of Congress