Zeinabu irene Davis’s debut feature film takes place across two parallel narratives set in Chicago at the beginning and end of the 20th century. Each tale is a love story between a Deaf woman and a hearing man and their navigations of not only the language barrier between American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English but the racism, audism, and other obstacles in their lives. Using ASL as well as filmmaking devices from the silent film era, Compensation imagines an inventive approach to a bilingual film that makes visible the creative efforts and necessary work of accessibility, essential to meaningful communication. 1999, 16mm, b/w, US, in English with subtitles and American Sign Language, 95 min.

More information can be found here.