[Chris]: Chris Woodfill speaking. And I would like to introduce you to Doug Roland. And he is a filmmaker for the project that we're going to be working on called Feeling Through
[Doug]: Back in August of 2011, I was coming home late one night. I was out in the East village in New York city. And I saw this man standing on a street corner by himself. And as I got closer, I saw that he was holding a sign that said that he needed help crossing the street and that he was deaf and blind. This is the first time I'd ever encountered a DeafBlind person. So initially I tried to talk to him and quickly realized that wasn't going to work. But when I tapped him, he had a note pad that he wrote to me that he needed a certain bus stop. So I walked him over to the bus stop. I didn't want him to sit and wait by himself. So I wanted to find a way to let them know that I would wait with him. And I kind of intuitively just took his hand and started writing one letter at a time on his Palm. The man who had written his name as A R T Z, artz is how I knew him at that. In that conversation, he was just a really charismatic open-hearted warm person. I was inspired to write a short film about it. I reached out to the Helen Keller national center, but they are pretty busy over there.
[Sue]: I was a bit skeptical about it, um, because I had never received any call like that in the past.
[Chris]: I remember in the beginning, I remember initially I was like, I am not so sure about this. I was politely persistent in reaching out a number of times through emails and calls.
[Sue]: I believe it was a lengthy voice message from Doug that I learned about the idea of the film.
[Doug]: There are not DeafBlind actors portraying DeafBlind characters in the media. That's the whole reason that we're standing here today and why we've come up here and why we've been connecting with everyone in the community, because we really want to tell this story accurately and authentically.
[Sue]: I remember sitting in the lobby of this hotel and meeting with Doug and the team. So I was able to talk to Doug in detail about what inspired the story
[Doug]: Right from the start. I knew that I wanted to cast it up. Why doctor?
[Sue]: It's not common that we're going to see the face of, of these people in media. It's a sort of breakthrough. It's a first it's never happened before. I can't think of anybody who is DeafBlind , who has ever been cast in any type of movie. It was very obvious to myself and, and two of my colleagues and we were very excited.
[Cathy]: Doug told us his story about meeting this guy seven years ago in New York. And I said, I bet we can find him within three hours.
[Doug]: I got an email from Cathy Kirscher, who was a part of that initial meeting, telling me that they're like, we found them, it came pretty clear who it was Hispanic guy, New York tactile signed this RD, like, or at least we know who it is. It's this man named Artemio. We would love to, um, reunite with our Tomio who's inspired this story. And then it became a quest. Where is Artemio living at this time?
[Cathy]: The sad part is we couldn't find RD after that. He has known contact with email and all of that, but that's how small and tight this community is for months and months and months, they couldn't find our temil
[Sue]: People basically were saying, gee, I don't think we're going to be able to find him.
[Doug]: I knew that there was so much for me to learn about the community, but also that I was gonna, I really need help finding potential actors to fill this role.
[Chris]: I remember starting to think in my mind of who could be potential candidates for Doug to interview.
[Doug]: You can come sit here.
[Person]: So how would I encounter this person? Would it be just walking on the street on the road?
[Doug]: And that's initially how the other character meets him. So I'd love to just jump right in and get to know you a little bit more and that's...Right. Learn how to sign and learn. We'd be using two cameras, um, to capture the scenes in a more nuanced and efficient way,
[Robert]: Trying to figure out their communication style and the communication methods so that I can interpret what's going on was challenging. At times, interpreting a translation are very different and interpretation is always going to be an interpretation. It's going to be me trying to trying my best to get where you're at, right? It's not a direct translation. There may be one word in English that I might have eight different ways to sign it based on all of the other words around it and what your intent is. So my goal is to interpret the meaning and the essence in the manner in which you convey it so that the deaf or DeafBlind person will understand it and be able to respond accordingly.
[Doug]: At one point in the middle of the day, we had a little bit of a break between auditions
[Chris]: Options that, um, that are not, um, Ilissa. I don't know if this is good enough for you, but if you would like you talk with Robert, he works in our kitchen. We can pull him over here. I think he might be a good, is it, do you want to add?
[Doug]: I know you just got pulled in here, so I'll explain a little bit why we're here. We are making a movie.
[Robert]: Um, Oh, wait, who is going to be the actor? Me? It made me feel so excited. I was like, wait, are you serious? I'm auditioning for something. I don't, you know, you have to remember. I do remember I work from 10 to six, Monday to Friday.
[Chris]: So don't worry about that. We would excuse you from work.
[Robert]: Are you sure?
[Chris]: Yes. It's only for a few days.
[Robert]: I just want to pick up because you're not bothered to have a movie star, you know, I don't want to be in trouble with you, you know? And if you, if I'm late, it's on you,.
[Chris]: Don't worry about it. We will excuse you.
[Robert]: But then I felt like this is my dream coming true that I'm sitting here in this room auditioning for a movie. I'm getting so excited about this. And I love being on camera.
[Doug]: Genuinely. The moment Robert walked in the room, I was like, this is our guy. So we were really, really excited to, call up Robert shortly after and let him know that he'd gotten the role. And he was very excited. I just remember one day I was at work and my boss, Dan came over to me. He's like, I'm on the phone right now. And he's like, Doug picked, you was like, Oh my God. Oh my God. Me really? Wow. I just couldn't believe it. I was thinking I did it. I made it.
[Sue]: I felt great for him. I was really excited. It was great to learn that he was the person selected. He's such a friendly, charismatic type of person. He's got a good soul.
[Robert]: I was born deaf, but I had 2020 vision. I thought about wanting to become an actor and meeting actors and wanting even to be an actor in a movie. Then at the age of about 30, 31, I started to lose my vision. It became just so depressing to me. I thought there's no way that anyone would want to hire someone who was not only deaf, but deaf and blind to become an actor. I have no peripheral vision at all. I have like a tiny box of vision in front of me that I can see through.
[HKNC Employee]: So his vision on a great day, it'd be this on top of this. Yeah.
[Robert]: I mean, Artie is a completely DeafBlind person, whereas I am not. I'm deaf and legally blind. So it was a little bit different for me. We're the same, but we're not. So for me, I was trying to figure out how to play the part of already, because he had no vision. I mean, who knows in the future, I might lose all my vision. Just like Artie.
[Doug]: I don't know what it's going to be like getting you guys together yet. And like actually working through it together.
[Steven]: Do you have any tips to give me?
[Doug]: I have a plan, but like I also, like I have no idea. We'll have to figure it out. We'll just like, see what it's like when we get moving. They have pretty unique elevators in here. There's obviously a lot more buttons than the other most elevators. And you can keep your hand on the button so that, uh, when it gets to the floor, this will pop out and it lets you know that you're at your floor. This is just an opportunity for us to be able to get on our feet for you. And Steven's interact with each other. And for us to start to see where we're at with things, you just got to go. Just keep walking.
[Steven]: That rehearsal that we did was different from any other rehearsal that I've done before.
[Robert]: I remember he came over to me, he tapped me and he was trying to communicate with me, Tereek And it was the first time. And he was like trying to guide me, but here I am on this DeafBlind person. And we were trying to engage with one another.
[Steven]: It took a lot of just trusting each other, listening to each other.
[Doug]: Even if it's a little awkward for you to do it. Even if you wish you didn't have as many things in your hands, that's one of the obstacles that you still need to get past in order to communicate to them. And that first rehearsal was great. It was to have Robert and Stephen jump right into it. But it was also really scary as a director because I was like, Oh man, I wish we had 20 more rehearsals because there's so much more we need to get through.
[Interpreter]: So if I just leave you here, you're not going to be able to get where you're going. Yeah. So why don't you be and let Tereek be Tereek and let him watch you.
[Doug]: Perfect. I love that idea.
[Chris]: People I think are probably more familiar with what is called TASL, which is tactile American sign language, which is really just using regular visual sign language adapted to the hand.
[Interpreter]: Haptics is, it's just a way of touch communication that we use here at Helen Keller. So we might just put our hand on Robert's shoulder, for example, to just mean hold or just to stop.
[Chris]: But then there are also some people who might learn the print on Palm method, where you actually take letters, use your index finger and print them on the other person's Palm of their hand.
[Robert]: It was hard for me to actually use that type of communication because I'm not used to it. So it took me a while to understand what Tereek was trying to communicate to me on the Palm of my hand.
[Doug]: Yeah. I definitely came away from that first rehearsal. Pretty nervous. I was pretty sweaty by the time we got out of there and looking around at other people going like, is it hot here? Is it just me? Because I know Dan's going to get mad at me. If I don't get you back to the cafeteria. It was really great to be able to work with the two of them. And then also moreover though it reaffirmed that cast the right people.
[HKNC Employee]: So if you want to cross the street, say, you can see or hear this will get you recognized faster. And then when he's walking, he just needs to just move his cane. Like that's all he needs to do.
[Doug]: Great. You know, basically we're going to be outside with like some natural light from streetlights, but also like most of the light that he's going to feel on him is light that we're introducing.
[HKNC Employee]: I actually have a lot of concerns with what he's going to be able to see exactly.
[Doug]: It was in March of 2018 that we had that first meeting with HKNC, but it wasn't until November of that year that I got an email the day before we started shooting the film that we found Artemio, or we know where he lives.
[Sue]: One of our former staff members had the opportunity to be at a forum and at that forum was Artemio.
[Doug]: So now it's the day before we start shooting and we have this address for Artemio, and I was like, well, invite them to set. Let's let's have them come. Like, you know what better way to let them know what he's inspired to have him come down to set. Scene nine, take one, Mark.
[Robert]: I remember the first time I was standing there on the set, they had to do my makeup and I was like, Oh, is that what movie stars do? Okay. I'm going to sit in the seat and get my makeup done. And uh, took me over to a storefront.
[Doug]: Action. We were shooting this film in November, in New York city outside, at night. So you have the obvious challenges that you might assume of it being quite cold a bunch of the days.
[Robert]: I had to follow what Doug was telling me to do and it was cold. And I had to focus on keeping my eyes focused and not act as if I was looking. And it was tough with the weather.
[Doug]: You don't have to scan so much, but really? Yeah.
[Robert]: So just like I'm scanning, cause I don't know where he is. So that's, that was the scan just right?
[Doug]: Sure. Of course.
[Interpreter]: I think it helped to just provide Robert with a lot of the touch techniques. So giving him signals to indicate, keep going or to indicate like the scene is going to be cut or to stop. I think really helped out in this situation.
[Steven]: He was sticking it out. I thought Robert was about to like tap out, but he was like, nah, he said, no, I got this. Like I just needed a quick breather. He just got right back up and was like, yeah, we think we're going to finish this. We're going to do this. And we needed that. That just tightened me up. And I was like, yo, I can get this. Oh, sorry. It
[Robert]: It doesn't matter if I'm deaf and legally blind, I still felt like I could do it.
[Doug]: We were shooting almost the whole film outside at night. And in those settings, Robert really has little to no vision. So something that we needed to figure out ahead of time, how do we break off and create little settings where the interpreters well lit enough so that him and Robert can communicate.
[Interpreter]: So whoever was not actually interpreting at the moment would hold the light over Robert shoulder so that the light wouldn't distract him. So it was coming from behind Robert. So he wouldn't get any ambient glare and he could actually see the interpreter.
[Interpreter]: It's called a silent call pager. It's a very simple system. It's just one way. It either chimes or if vibrates. So when they're striking the lights.
[Doug]: It's your part, so I'm just helping you find it. But it's your role to have, take more ownership over it.
[Robert]: Okay.
[Steven]: There was a scene where, when I had to, like, when he touches me and I kinda like shift, I kind of fliche reflexes. And he was saying that, you know, in real life, like it's, it's a sad thought that people in this world are afraid of like, you know, human connection.
[Robert]: The point is just communicating. It doesn't matter how you communicate, whether it's through sign language or with pen and paper.
[Steven]: There was a kinship that was building between us. And I believe that is showed on camera. It was something just magical just happening around everyone on set.
[Doug]: Cut. That's a wrap.
[Steven]: Woo! Had to let that out. Sorry.
[Doug]: So the shoot comes and goes and we're not able to get in touch with Artemio. A couple of days after Christmas of 2018, I was up at HKNC and I was like, I'm going to just go by his house and see what happens. We are in front of our Artemio's house about to knock on his door. To our knowledge, he does not know anything about this yet. So we're going to go in there and do our best to explain why we're there so that we can finally be reunited with Artemio and let him know that he's inspired this film.
[Doug]: Might've been better to do this during the day time. Just realizing that. But it's dinner time. It's like an approachable hour hurdle. Number one, definitely don't want to hop the fence. That would not be a good start to this operation. Any chance have you ever seen anyone? Um, if they have a son who's deaf and blind,.
[Person]: They do. They always lock their gates so you have to yell out.
[Doug]: Hello? Hello. I have a question. Is Artemio your son?.
[Person]: Yeah. One moment.
[Doug]: Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Okay. Oh great.
[Person]: Please, please. My husband,
[Doug]: What did Artemio say when you explained who we are and why we're here?
[Person]: I told him a seven year old friend that his acquaintance is here and wants to see him. You remember?
[Doug]: Very quickly. We realized that the most efficient way for us to communicate was just like how we communicated when we first met each other.
[Artemio]: Are you an artist?
[Doug]: Yes. Filmmaker.
[Artemio]: Do you want a glass of fresh water?
[Doug]: Sure. It had been at this point about seven and a half years exactly since the one and only time that I'd met him prior, but the instant, he walked down the stairs, like his appearance and his energy. It was very familiar, surprisingly so. Over the course of this year in searching for him, I started building this rounded understanding of who Artemio was through all these other encounters that he'd had with other people. I will tell you more about the film soon.
[Doug]: Yeah. It was great to be able to finally fill him in on this whole experience that he's inspired, but it was really just more than anything. Just really great to see him again,
[Artemio]: Such a pleasure to see you again. Doug had never even met a DeafBlind person in his entire life meeting me was his first time encountering a DeafBlind individual. And we ultimately became friends. Now I'm motivated to learn about becoming an actor and becoming an author similar to Helen Keller,
[Doug]: Robert being a part of this experience. Wasn't a challenge. It made it what it is. It was such an integral part of creating the environment that that was that pervaded. Every moment of the shoot it's in the DNA of every moment of the story that we're telling.
[Sue]: It gives other individuals who are DeafBlind , an example of what's possible.
[Steven]: It was a learning and humbling experience all around.
[Artemio]: I can do anything. Just like your typical sighted person can do it.
[Chris]: It doesn't really matter who the people are. It's about that connection that two people can make.
[Robert]: I hope to educate people through the film. So that's my hope for the future. And I hope that Doug maybe who knows he'll give me a shot at doing part two of this movie.
[Doug]: Th whoe journey from the start of meeting Artemio years ago, to aligning with Helen Keller National Center to casting Robert as our DeafBlind actor in the film has been such an amazing journey and it was, it was just so great to have it capped off by reuniting with Artemio and getting a chance to share that with him.
[Sue]: To really elevate people's, you know, just awareness about people who are DeafBlind is tremendous.
[Robert]: I feel like at the end, when we embrace each other and have the hug, I feel like it was showing how people can help each other out. And I felt like that was really something that really left an impact on me because we are all not alone in this world. Everybody needs each other. Everybody needs help. Everybody can help each other out.