While I was exploring the website of Galladet University, I found myself on their instagram page. I was looking at a particular photo featuring a student covered in face paint that was posted on Haloween, when my attention was immediatley captured by the username of a commenter. The username was @deaf__tv. Naturally, I clicked on the user and started scrolling through the feed. From first glance I noticed that @deaf__tv is an account with over 18,000 followers and 400 posts. After clicking on a few posts I learned that @deaf__tv posts short clips of people signing. Some of the clips feature only one person signing in a monolouge while other display conservations between two or more people signing back and forth.

In general, I really enjoyed Deaf Jam. The movie was really different from what I usually watch so I did not know how to feel at the start but when I left the room I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the movie and by the intensity of the emotions that it invoked in me.  I was amazed by the intensity ASL vibrated throughout the movie and by the passion in every person’s eyes while they were performing their poem.  The whole idea about ASL poetry was something I was ignorant about, I think it overall helped me have somewhat of an understanding of deaf culture. One thing that especially stood out to me and I thought was really well done was the existence or absence of sound in many scenes of the movie.

Cohen's experience as an interpreter and her reflection of interpreters' roles are both very insightful. I had never considered the toll it could take on one’s mental wellness. While working as an interpreter, Cohen was effectively silenced while on the job, not conveying her thoughts, feelings, or personal identity. Although she was working for other people, Cohen was very isolated while on the job. She was also absorbing the experiences she was interpreting while not being allowed to disclose anything because of the interpreter’s code of ethics. And after work, she was often left with the feeling that her interpreting was not sufficient. In these ways interpreting took a toll.

This summer, sitting in a peaceful place (the back porch on my farm in Virginia, at the edge of my husband’s apple orchard), he and Ann “challenged” me to read War and Peace. I don’t remember why.

Something that stood out to me in the movie Deaf Jam was when Aneta was talking about her future and what she was going to do once she was done with school. This made me think about what jobs are accessible to deaf people, and it made me feel like the only options were becoming an educator for other deaf children, which obviously isn't true, but I can imagine how stressful and difficult it would be for someone who is deaf and doesn't speak orally, or read lips very well to get a job in the "real world" and support themselves. I am curious about what kinds of jobs people who graduate from schools like Lexington go into and whether they are accomidated in jobs or how successful they are with getting a job.

I personally really enjoyed Deaf Jam.  I enjoyed the entire storyline, how they talked about this girl's experience while inserting important information about the daf community.  I also enjoyed how they went into depth with some of the deaf children's personal stories because it helped me make a connection with them which made me like them and enjoy the movie more.  I was entranced by most of their signs too.  Having taken sign language as a class in high school, I tried to make out what they were saying and was able to catch onto some of it.  I was a bit upset that they lost touch with the other members of the deaf group once they went to college.  I wanted to know what they decided to pursue in life or what they studied in college.  We only got a glimpse of the main characters best f

The first thing I think of as I reflect on the movie, is Aneta's decision to refuse an interpreter at her first big poetry slam. Her desire for the audience to focus on her motion and decipher the meaning of her poem from that at first struck me as a poor decision, because it seems as if she purposefully witholds her meaning in the poem from the mostly hearing and non-ASL fluent audience. However, as I think of it more I see that what she did is actually in the true spirit of poetry. Poetry is something that people constantly try to decipher and produce a universal meaning when that is not at all what poetry is about.

After watching Deaf Jam and reading more of Train Go Sorry I feel like I've taken in a lot about deaf culture and experience in general. One thing I found interesting was the scene in Deaf Jam where Aneta and her best friend are arguing and Aneta says she wish she could be part of the rest of the world because it provides so many more opportunities. While her best friend feels that Aneta is viewing it the wrong way. That contraversy was really interesting to me, because Train Go Sorry also presents how within the community there are those who may feel they are missing something while others who can't see that at all. Also interesting is the politics within the deaf community, which I had not known existed beforehand.

I wasn't really sure what to expect for the music/soundtrack/sound design of Deaf Jam; I thought the movie could have been executed as a silent film or with narration and light music. I was surprised to see that the sound wasn't consistent throughout the film: sometimes, there was narration, other times, it was completely silent, and other times, there was percussion accompanying deaf conversations and slam poetry. I think the fluidity and flexibility of the sound alludes to those of the deaf language and its wide range of visual expression. Also, the scene that I found most interesting was when Aneta and her friend were arguing in class because there was no sound, but the passion could be understood from their facial expressions and aggressive signing.