The first association of people with hearing
\ndisabilities in Romania turns 104 years this November. The Romanian Deaf Mute Association
\nwas founded on November 9th, 1919, under the patronage of Queen
\nMarie of Romania, through the voluntary association of a group of deaf people. Its
\nfirst president was Mr. Alexandru Clarnet, and the executive committee included
\nPrince Henry Ghica, the deaf son of the ruler Constantin Ghica. It is a
\nnon-profit organisation aimed at helping integrate people with hearing
\ndisabilities in society.<\/p>\n
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This autumn, the association implemented a
\nproject entitled The Week of Deaf Community and Culture. Bogdan Anicescu,
\ncultural director of the ANSR, gave us more details about it: <\/p>\n
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Bogdan Anicescu:The Week of Deaf Community and Culture is a bilateral initiative,
\nimplemented by the National Association of Deaf People in Romania in a
\npartnership with an organisation from Norway called the International Organisation
\nfor Democracy and Human Rights. The goal of the project was to showcase a
\ncultural dimension of deafness, to shed light on the deaf person as a member of
\na community, of a cultural and linguistic community sharing a different
\nlanguage than Romanian, namely the Romanian sign language. Thanks to the
\nNorwegian grants and after winning a call for projects under the Timi\u015foara -
\nEuropean Capital of Culture programme, we sought to turn Timi\u015foara into a
\nCapital of Deaf Culture as well, between September 11th and 24th,
\nwhen the city hosted a number of events devoted to deaf culture.<\/p>\n
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The events included a beauty and talent show,
\nMiss and Mister Silence, a dance and mime festival, a joint workshop with the
\nNorwegian partners on the cultural integration of deaf people, the premiere of
\na short reel called Love without Words, a Silent March in which hundreds of
\ndeaf people gathered in Timi\u015foara’s Botanical Park and marched through the
\ncentre of the city, as well as a sign language workshop in which people without
\nhearing disabilities were introduced to the basics of sign language.<\/p>\n
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Octavian Iacob, the director of the film Love
\nwithout Words, told us about working with deaf characters: <\/p>\n
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Octavian Iacob:We had an interpreter who had to stand in front of the actors.
\nMany times, this meant the interpreter was positioned next to the camera or
\neven inside the frame, so we needed time to adjust the image to what was
\nsupposed to be in the movie. It was a challenge that we accepted, we loved it
\nand I have to praise these people who were so open, so transparent, so willing
\nto act. They received exceptional attention during the 4 days of shooting. It
\nwas extraordinary, a truly new experience that one doesn’t usually find on set
\nand, let’s face it, one doesn’t usually find in one’s day to day life.<\/p>\n
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Octavian Iacob also gave us a few details about
\nthe casting process:<\/p>\n
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Octavian Iacob:We travelled to Timi\u015foara, we had one day scheduled for casting,
\nand several people with hearing disabilities showed up. We had several criteria
\nin selecting our cast: there were script-related criteria, the actors had to
\nmatch the description of the characters, then there was the talent these people
\nhad to have with respect to acting, to learning a text and performing it in
\nsign language, we had to see what these signs looked like so as to adjust our
\nshooting methods.<\/p>\n
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Professional actors were also cast in the short
\nreel: Paul Diaconescu and Cristina Velciu guided the public towards the
\noriginal story, towards what the plot was seeking to convey. As for the actors
\nwith hearing disabilities who took part in the project, the director Octavin
\nIacob also said: <\/p>\n
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Octavian Iacob:Not only are they not professional actors, but they didn’t even
\nhave time for one rehearsal, they only read the script for about two weeks, everything
\nwas discussed online, via zoom, using an interpreter, which is quite difficult
\nin itself. But on the first day of shooting, when I had selected some easier
\nscenes, I was amazed to see that they all knew their lines perfectly. The
\ninterpreter had the text and confirmed to me that almost every word is said,
\nand I say almost every word because in sign language the structure is
\ndifferent.<\/p>\n
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Bogdan Anicescu, the cultural director of ANSR,
\nalso added:<\/p>\n
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Bogdan Anicescu:Love without words is what we feel as well, because we managed to
\nimplement this activity as part of our joint project, The Week of Deaf
\nCommunity and Culture. The idea goes way back and we wanted a chance to turn Timi\u015foara,
\nas part of this project, into a special place able to host the first film of
\nthis kind in Romania, in which deaf persons and sign language play a central
\npart. It is the outcome of the work completed by a small, but ambitious and
\ndevoted team, and we are glad that we worked so well with the director Octavian
\nIacob, the producer Mirela Mu\u015fat and their entire team. It all happened very
\nquickly, but the end result is wonderful, especially considering the positive
\nfeedback from the public with or without hearing disabilities. The message the
\nfilm seeks to get across is that love goes beyond communication barriers, and
\nsign language is able to bring people together.<\/p>\n
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The project is intended to encourage
\nlarger-scale support for the cultural movement of Romanian deaf people, beyond
\nthe Association and beyond this minority as such. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first association of people with hearing disabilities in Romania turns 104 years this November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":585599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[42042,116818,43807,33299],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-624213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-association","tag-deaf","tag-disabilities","tag-hearing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n