Media with Deaf Lead Characters

We have a wonderful lending library of media with Deaf characters here at CSC! Please drop by and take a look at it. For those of you who might not be able to come in, here is a list of some movies, documentaries, and TV shows with Deaf lead characters and intersections. Most are available through popular streaming services.

Documentaries

• See What I’m Saying (English Subtitled) – “This award-winning documentary follows four extraordinary Deaf entertainers – an actor, comic, drummer and a singer – over the course of one year, giving viewers a rare and powerful glimpse into the lives of Deaf artists. New York Times Critics’ Pick.”
• Sound and Fury – Two families, one deaf and one hearing, make decisions about cochlear implants for their children.
• Through Deaf Eyes – “Explore 200 years of deaf life in America – a story of conflicts, prejudice and affirmation that reaches the heart of what it means to be human”
• Christine Sun Kim – Nowness – Short documentary, part of the Nowness project “The cult photographer and filmmaker profiles the intriguing world of deaf performance artist Christine Sun Kim and her experiments with sound.”
• Touch the Sound – “Gracefully guided by the Grammy Award-winning percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who also happens to be deaf, this groundbreaking film opens the door to a world where sight, sound, and touch magically converge to elevate our everyday sensory experiences.”
• In the Land of the Deaf – “With unerring curiousity and sensitivity, director Philbert portrays the difficulties and joys of being deaf, offering vivid portraits of people of all ages coping with and surmounting their challenges.”
• Hear and Now – “The deeply personal memoir about 65-year-old deaf couple who decide to undergo surgery to have their hearing restored.”
• Deaf Out Loud – “Three predominantly deaf families are followed as they raise their children in a hearing world. With many differing opinions about how deaf children should be raised swirling in the social consciousness, these families work to forge their own paths forward and combat the daily social stigmas many deaf people face.”

Movies with Deaf Characters

• Beyond Silence – French CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) story of a young woman’s battle for independence and her deaf parents’ struggle to understand her gift for music.
• CODA – the American version of the same film (Beyond Silence). The story of a 17 year old CODA’s music gift and coming to terms with her life and growth within the context of her Deaf family. Available only on Apple+.
• Children of a Lesser God – the story of a relationship between a hearing special education teacher and an angry deaf graduate of the school.
• No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie – SuperDeafy must reveal the man behind the cape to find true love and inspire a young deaf boy to believe in himself.
• Sweet Nothing In My Ear – Family drama about a deaf and hearing couple who struggle to decide whether or not to give their deaf son a cochlear implant.
• A Quiet Place – terrifyingly suspenseful thriller in which  a family must navigate their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound.
• The Legend of the Mountain Man (in ASL) – Dysfunctional family, kids are sent to grandparents and encounter a creature, one that has never been seen.  American Sign Language, No audio.
• Claustrophobia – “A young deaf man gets trapped in his house when he becomes entangled in a nasty real estate dispute with his murderous next-door neighbor. As he struggles to overcome his fears, open captions take the audience inside our deaf hero’s head.” Horror movie.
• And Your Name Is Jonah – Jonah is a lonely deaf child who has been misdiagnosed as having an intellectual disability and institutionalized. Jonah’s mother and father struggle to establish communication with their son.
• The Silent Child – Heartbreaking Oscar winner short film about a Deaf child with hearing parents and no supports.
• Mr. Holland’s Opus – A passionate musician pulls away from composing and toward a teaching career, and struggles to reconcile his son’s Deafness with his own desires for his son to hear music.
• Audible – “Football player Amaree McKenstry-Hall and his Maryland School for the Deaf teammates attempt to defend their winning streak while coming to terms with the tragic loss of a close friend.”
• The Tribe: Set in the world of a Ukrainian high school for the deaf as a new student realizes immediately that he must prove himself worthy to be brought under the protective wing of the school gang’s leader to survive.
• The Family Stone – “The outgoing and eccentric Stone family unites in common cause when their favorite son brings home his uptight and reserved girlfriend to meet the family at Christmas”.The favorite son has a deaf brother and the family knows ASL.
• A Silent Voice: (Japanese) “When a grade student with impaired hearing is bullied mercilessly, she transforms to another school. Years later, one of her former tormentors sets out to make amends.”
• Love Is Never Silent – “A young woman struggles with her own need for independence and the obligation she feels for her Deaf parents in this depression-era drama.”
• Mourning (Soog) (English Subtitled) – A deaf couple keeps a tragic secret from their nephew, debating the child’s future in a language not as private as they believe, whilst on a road trip home to Tehran.
• Bridge To Silence – “A hearing impaired woman suffers a mental breakdown when a drunk-driving accident kills her husband and she finds herself in a struggle with her mother over the fate of her young daughter.”
• The Hammer – A coming of age drama following the life of Matt Hamill, the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate.

TV Shows

• Switched at Birth – 5 seasons of tv shows about a deaf girl and hearing girl who were switched at birth, and follows the stories of their lives, growing up.
• Deaf U – Deaf U is a coming-of-age reality series following a tight-knit group of Deaf students at Gallaudet University. As the group of friends navigate the high, lows, and hookups of college life together, their stories offer an unprecedented, unfiltered, and often unexpected look inside Deaf community.

And…

• ASL Films: a wide variety of films in ASL: aslfilms.comBSL Zone: a wide variety of films in BSL (British Sign Language), including the Zoom Focus films.