I was hoping to see a movie called I Am Not Your Negro with open captions. It was slated to open at most of theatres on February 3rd, 2017. The movie won the People’s Choice Award in the documentary at 2016 Toronto International Film Festival as you can find the reference in the below. I’ve been looking forward to see this movie since January. Yes, there are two movies that has CLOSED-CAPTIONED or CAPTI-VIEW at two other locations. Again, the majority of Deaf community favours open captions.

I am a subscriber of DC Deaf Moviegoers, it is a weekly news where the owner of the site pick the movies of a choice and ask the subscribers to participate and pick which movie they want to see through a survey conducted by Google Forms. Surprisingly, there was not a survey included I Am Not Your Negro on the list for February 2017. With hopes to see if it is on the list for March 2017, it is still not there. See the sample below:

 

If difficulty see the letters, click me then!

Since Washington, D.C. is one of the largest Black cities in America, the latest demographics available by Wiki was 2010–it has rich history, home of Frederick Douglass, and many others including The National Museum of African American History and Culture that was just opened few months ago. I’m saddened that DC Deaf Moviegoers did not choose to include this important film for Deaf community to watch. Not only that, but it is also Black History Month, too.

Click me to zoom up!

We all learn the healing from documentary films. Since the documentary films is essentially educational and social–particularly in its early stages when it involves facing truth what people of color had been gone through, must have minimal mastery how to face with truth for engaging in future documentary that involves a strong movie like I Am Not Your Negro. 

Documentary is not a world of its own. It is not even a world because documentary is in the world, because it is affected by situations, and because it orients itself comprehensively in those situations, documentaries has something to heal all people to change and grow socially as well as academically. We all must face the reality that Racism exists–even in Deaf community, too.

Yes, sometimes we all need to stand in front, too, to help create a healthy setting in which each individual can change and everyone can grow. Again, I was really surprised that DC Deaf Moviegoers did not select I Am Not Your Negro makes me wonder. It would have been good movie.

-JT

Copyright @ 2017 Jason Tozier

This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Not_Your_Negro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_African-American_populations