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National Association of the Deaf

New Orleans, Louisiana
The Hamill team attended to this year’s National Association of the Deaf convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. The convention was my first time here in United States. I have heard about N.A.D for the last several of years. NAD was established in 1880, by deaf leaders who believed in the right of the American Deaf community to use sign language, to protect and promote civil, human and linguistics rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Fought the rights of closed captioning, and covers several of issues such as advocacy for education, employment, healthcare, technology and hosted Deaf USA Youth leadership camp.

We met with several of corporations for potential sponsorships for “Hamill” film. It is with hope they will invest into the project. We can’t do it without their assistance, as it’s a $2 million dollar budget. It’s a very low budget film considered in Hollywood standards. I found the experience really enjoyable and we had frank open discussions about the controversy. I joined the team after the controversy. I was not part of it earlier this year. I just wanted to be clear on that. We also talked about the future possibilities with the film and the UFC fan base is growing dramatically. Even with the recent fight, Matt lost. Nevertheless, the film will get made. It takes time, patience and perseverance. On top of all this, I am working two jobs to support myself, just like many other artists in the entertainment industry, here in L.A. The best part of New Orleans was hanging out with deaf leaders,and meeting potential deaf talent for the film. It’s a wonderful networking opportunity, and not only that, ran into a good friend of mine who teaches at Gallaudet University was the high light of the week. That person is really supportive of the project and hopes to see the auditions return back at Gallaudet some day in the near future. I can’t speak for that person so I will not reveal that person’s name for the sake of privacy reasons, out of respect. If you plan on visiting New Orleans, go to Bubba Gump or La Bayou restaurant, they make the best shrimp and the “Hurricane” drinks! At the convention, we attended to ASL Idol, and it was amazing to watch all kinds of talent on stage, several of performances ranging from signing/singing songs of “Material Girl” to ASL Poetry etc. The audience voted with the wireless voting system, just like in T.V show of “American Idol” concept including three judges on stage providing critiques. I attended to several of workshops and went to one on RID: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. One man, who is a CODA and long time resident of New Orleans, blew me away. He went up on the platform and expressed his concerns, over the certification process, since after Hurricane Katrina, the interpretation services declined quite rapidly. They were using non-RID certified interpreters, (college graduates) as “better than nothing” for the sake of deaf community members in the city of New Orleans. My heart just hit the floor when I saw him describing their struggles. As a Deaf person, I can’t say “it must be certified not matter what” specifically in the state of a disastrous situation they faced and the need for it immediately. Under their circumstances, it’s “better than nothing” in terms of simple basic communication tool, like talking to Red Cross officials, Emergency services personnel, post Katrina recovery teams, et cetera. I’m thinking, should they wait for another month or two or maybe longer, to get a real certified ones approved? I wouldn’t want to wait that long. Take advantage that is there already is easier and I am sure they will improve their interpretation services for the better in the near future. There’s hope. I also attended to “Black Deaf Entertainers” workshop, and found it to be quite informative. Fred Beam presented it.. I had a privelege of meeting Jonathan Hall Kovacs of “ Rathskellar”, performing arts/dance troupe. Congratulations to Bernard Bragg and Phyllis Frelich on their Life Time Achievement awards! I am in awe of these two immensely talented performers! I wanted to thank Hamill’s production team for sending us there to New Orleans from the bottom of my heart.

In the recent weeks, I have been talking to several of Deaf actors and asked them “Do you think it’s possible to find a Deaf actor for the LEAD role?” Most said yes and next question is “Should there be an open casting call for a male lead role?” I believe yes it should have an open casting call, If you folks who read this blog can agree or disagree, and the final decisions primarily lies with the producers and executive producers, with financial backing. The investors do have the power to have a final say of “WHOM” they want to hire for the role. Not me. I don’t have any control over that. My role is an amicable process, to facilitate within the production team, assist with the structure of the pre production plans, and assist with the casting process, working closely with K’Dee, the producer of the film, et cetera. At the same time, I am really enjoying myself by being part of the process. It’s always exciting to see the challenges, and of course, the highs and the lows that comes with it. J I hope the next step here on the blog is a VLOG! We are working hard on it to improve the design of the website.

Have a fantastic week!
Yours truly,
Catherine