Adam Wachter | Sign / 2016

gestures and signs

by Douglas Messerli

 

Adam Wachter (screenplay), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (director) Sign / 2016 [15 minutes]

 

Actor and director Andrew Keenan-Bolger’s 2016 short film Sign takes the viewer directly into the deaf world of one of its central characters, Aaron (John McGinty) by making his movie a silent one and expressing the story and incidents through music, gestures, and sign-language. Through this brilliant maneuver we come not only to perceive how difficult it is to move through such a silent world, but are forced to become as alert to small signals, the movement of lips and the expression of faces, as most deaf individuals must be.

     Add to this the cultural isolation of being gay, the chances of coming together with what some may perceive as almost a perfect couple are, in fact. terribly slim.   

      Ben first encounters the very cute Aaron on his way to the office, making this first-time slight eye contact; but over the next few frames, when he encounters him again and again, he finally moves to talk with him, clearly telling the man as the subway enters the station that his name is Ben, Aaron demonstrating that he is deaf. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to immediately put off Ben, as the two enter the subway car, almost chivalrously, each suggesting the other go first.

       They appear to meet up with Aaron walking Ben home, Ben attempting to indicate that they’ve arrived at his building and asking through signals whether he might not want to come up. But obviously this is not a good time for Aaron, pointing at his wrist, but just to be sure that Ben knows he isn’t disinterested in hooking up, he moves quickly forward and awards him a deep kiss.

      Within days the two are obviously dating, Ben studying sign language. And soon after Aaron  invites him to party with his friends, all busy talking in sign language, which leaves Ben on the couch holding the popcorn bowl.

         But soon after, at another party, Ben seems to be joining it vigorously with signing, but suddenly offending the man he is talking took by accidently making the wrong sign which describes his as an “asshole.” The two leave the party early, and obviously a small argument ensures before they make up.

        We see them at home, watching TV, making love, and generally enjoying one another’s company before finally making the decision, after visiting Ben’s father and mother, to move in together.

        Predictably, further complications occur, particularly when at a gay bar, Ben seems to be paying for more too much attention to another guy. That argument does not end so peacefully, as it appears that Aaron has been accusing Ben of spending a too much time with him previously, in a spoken conversation which, of course, excludes him. Frustrated Ben decides to leave, although he remains for a long while on the other side of the door, both of them obviously regretting their hasty decisions.

        Over the next few days they both attempt to talk out their problems with friends, Ben with words (that we cannot hear) and Aaron with cellphone sign language, which we cannot interpret. But we understand their regrets and frustrations since the plot has been played so many times previously in gay and straight movies.

       Ben finally gets a new apartment and even meets up with a Grindr date who eagerly engages him in sex. But clearly it is not what Ben is seeking.       

      In the final scene, we see Aaron once again taking the usual subway, but when he enters the car he discovers Ben on the bench with headphones in his ears very much the way Ben first encountered Aaron. Ben removes the earplugs and looks up to Aaron’s surprised but quickly pleased expression as we hear the first words of the train announcement, “Stand clear of the closing doors please,” as the train goes speeding off away from the camera carrying the two of them presumably to a shared life once more.

       This is not great filmmaking, particularly since simply for the sake of coherence the plot needed to be fairly predictable, the actions they share not too complex. But the attempt to immerse us in the silent world of the hearing impaired is certainly commendable and, actually, rather moving as we observe the inherent difficulties that both deaf and hearing lovers have in communicating their feelings. One can only imagine their frustrations when dealing the far more complex issues of everyday life.

        Yet, just as in the previous films of hearing and speaking impaired individuals we recognize in this work that love can and does make itself known in a world that involves individuals who each have their own limitations to overcome.

 

Los Angeles, August 21, 2022

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2022).