A beautiful, immersive film that uses Deaf actors to bring the story of Jesus to life from a Deaf perspective for a Deaf audience!
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Disclosure: Many thanks to Deaf Missions for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.
I was so curious about this movie when the review request meandered across my desk:
I had so many questions about this project, like were the actors Deaf themselves (the answer is yes!), or would a person who is Deaf prefer watching this movie that uses ASL over reading the closed captions for a vocalized film?
If you are part of the Deaf community, I'd love for you to comment with your answer!
Something that I wasn't worried about was being able to enjoy the movie even though there was no spoken dialogue. We watch loads of foreign films around here with the captions on (and actually have CC turned on for most everything we watch, because frankly it's often hard to understand the dialogue anyway), so we're used to reading what we watch anyway.
Despite that familiarity, it was definitely strange to not hear any spoken words in this film. Aside from getting the chance to walk in another's shoes, I found that the experience forced me to really immerse myself in what was happening on screen, since I wasn't able to do something else at the same time and just listen.
Thankfully, there was still background music and some sound effects, so those aspects helped me feel more connected to the story and meant I didn't have to go completely without one of my senses.
It was fun for me to recognize some signs throughout the film (I know a very small bit of ASL), but what most excited me about this movie was the fact that it exists -- it's so cool that the film's actors and director and producers are all members of the Deaf community!
This film will take you on a journey with Jesus and His disciples during His brief 3-year ministry here on earth. You'll witness His miracles, His transformative power, and His challenges to the religious elite in a time of high tension under Roman rule in Judea.
See the trailer here:
I've never watched this movie because I have always heard that it is just too disturbing and gruesome. I don't know how this Jesus movie compares to that one, but I actually felt sick to my stomach during the crucifixion scenes in this one and had to turn my head away pretty often.
Gv said I should give it a bad review.
But it definitely doesn't deserve any kind of bad review -- it's a beautiful film that conveys a familiar message in a new way. I'm happy to have watched it, but I'd say it's probably much too graphic for kids, so be warned about that.
It wasn't just the crucifixion scenes that were disturbing to me; another segment that comes to mind is the scene dealing with the woman and her flow of blood, because that whole section was really graphic, too.
I wonder, though, whether my sense of sight was so heightened that I was especially affected by these intense portions? I'll have to think about that a bit more...
If you are part of the Deaf community (or know someone who is), then you should definitely check this film out. And even if you're not, consider watching this movie that looks at a familiar story from a new perspective!
Buy tickets today to see JESUS: a Deaf Missions film in theaters starting June 20th!
#JESUSaDeafMissionsFilmMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork
Do you think it's as neat as I do that this feature film has been made by and for the Deaf community? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
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