DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT AND INSPIRATION

  

While working in the social service industry as an advocate for people with developmental disabilities, I was inspired to make a film that featured people communicating in different languages, namely sign language.  I wanted to show sign language as it is -- a language as useful and important as any spoken language.  

 

Due to their speech and language challenges, many of my clients struggled with verbal communication, even to express basic wants and needs. For some clients, this often led to anxiety, frustration and even behavior harmful to others or themselves.  I attended many meetings at schools, agencies, therapeutic programs, and residential facilities, where I advocated for clients to receive educational and therapeutic services that would enhance their ability to self-advocate.  However, sign language was hardly an option.   

After observing two ladies conversing in sign language at a restaurant, I began recommending sign language for clients.   However, I was met with great resistance.  I specifically remember several parents' refusal to let their children learn sign language because they believed it was a language for the handicap, not their children, even though their children lack the ability to use their voice to speak.  

 

After being told the aforementioned repeatedly, and feeling even more disappointed about the lack of available resources that could explain sign language as a language beneficial for any and everyone, one day I took a chance and taught one of my adult clients, who lived in a group home, to communicate his name and ask for water in sign language. I did this to see if he could learn and use the language appropriately.  He had never been taught sign language.  He was 23-years-old, autistic, could only vocalize "Papa", and had a long history of being violent when his needs were not gratified.  

 

When I met with the client two weeks later, to test his ability to use the sign language I  taught him.  Upon my arrival to his group home, I approached and asked the client in sign language for a glass of water and to say his name.   He replied by signing his name and retrieving me a glass of water from the kitchen.   I was elated and inspired, while the group home's owner and staffers were in disbelief.  It was this moment I committed to making a movie featuring sign language as language useful for anyone. 

  

While the above inspired the American Sign Language in Always Chasing Love, the story was inspired by family members, friends, acquaintances, and foster care clients who struggled with identity, grief, depression, shame, abandonment, rejection, and heartbreak.