My Hearing Problem

     The moment I thought about making my movie about a deaf queer person, I had to google a simple question: Is it okay to cast a non-deaf person as a deaf person in a film?
     I don't know any deaf people myself. Let alone any acting deaf people willing to participate in my project. I've seen small producers on Twitter initiate casting calls through the social media app, but since my time is limited and my financial resources aren't suitable for paid actors, I didn't even bother to consider this as a possible course of action. In fact, I've chosen to cast people I know don't have any professional acting experience. This strategy has worked for Sean Baker, director of the movie "The Florida Project," who cast Bria Vinaite as the leading actress for the film. Baker "plucked [Vinaite] from Instagram to make her acting debut" and as a result, he told a story "about real people in a way that's not judgmental" and fairly accurate.
     Consequently, I don't know any non-acting deaf people. So that leads me back to my original question. Prior to doing research, I know the dangers of casting certain roles poorly in a way that harms a community instead of creating a true representation of a certain group. This article highlights the overall history of queer representation in the media, but more specifically in the "Film" portion of the piece, the article notes the controversy behind the movie "Brokeback Mountain." The film is in-arguably one of the most successful "queer films" ever, grossing over $178 million. However, "a movie about “straight-acting” gay men" led to mixed reactions from the queer community, many of which felt outraged that straight men were representing gay men. The same kinds of reactions were seen from the deaf community in 2013 towards the movie "Avenged," whose story is centered around a deaf girl, but opted to cast a hearing actor instead. The outrage erupted on Twitter, and the problem arose greatly because "so many deaf performers had never heard about the audition." 
     It's evident that casting a person without a hearing impairment for a deaf role is wrong, leading me to put aside my idea of revolving my film around a deaf queer person. I have to focus on the resources I have available to me, whether it be when choosing locations for filming or casting the right people for certain roles. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to elaborate on my previous idea and accurately represent a deaf person in a film through an actual deaf person. Representation matters.