[Tim]: What was it where you just thought, I really want to be part of this?
[Marlee]: It was just a no-brainer for me after I saw the film. I typically don't find myself in situations where I can't take my eyes off the screen. I mean, it was 18 minutes of amazing, well put together, touching, moving experience of storytelling that I've ever seen. I was just amazed and it was eye-opening and I've learned a great deal myself about the DeafBlind community as well.
[Tim]: I think anyone who sees this film learns a lot, but also you make a good point, which I think is worth repeating: it's notable because we cast a blind-deaf actor, but it's also, it's just good filmmaking. I mean,it's, like really, really well done.
[Robert]: I was so excited that I got selected. I started just jumping for joy. I could not believe it. Um, seriously? And that's all my reaction was. And that's how it all started.
[Doug]: I'll quote what I've said the first time I ever met with Sue Ruzenski, the CEO of Helen Keller Services, who's my co-nominee, I said to her, I have a film that includes a DeafBlind character that I want to be played by a DeafBlind actor, but it's not a film about DeafBlindness. It's a film about the power of human connection that happens to include two characters from very different walks of life. And I think ultimately that's been something that as we've put it out on YouTube and had almost 3 million views in a little over a couple months and had thousands of people reach out to us in different ways, both from the DeafBlind community and people who've never experienced or thought of the DeafBlind community and everyone in between. Ultimately, what we're, I think most proud of about this story is that it's universal in what it touches on. It has a real reverence and respect for both of its primary characters, and that it's about, it's meant to remind us what's much deeper and more resonant beneath our disability or our skin color or our age, or our background.
[Marlee]: I try to make people aware of the fact that production companies, studios, they need to understand how crucial it is and they need to pay attention to whatever it is an actor needs on a set in order to work successfully. And Doug did that. He got it. He reached out to organizations who are very aware of needs when it comes to accessibility. And I think we need more Doug Roland out there.
[Steven]: I think we need more Doug Roland for lots of reasons. Did you to talk about your characters, the backstory with Doug? Did you do it in your mind or did you just think, no, let's concentrate on the script and what we can have here? Yeah, I did a separately talk with Doug about my character and who I related my character to was actually a kid named Norickson, who I had met like years prior to this film. He was a homeless kid who I met in the street looking for something to eat and get some coffee. He like stopped me in the middle of the street at night, and I told him, you know, asked him how old he was. He was actually younger than I was. And I told him he could stay with me for the night. And, you know, we had a conversation and everything. So, his essence is something that I carried with me into this project.
[Tim]: You had a Feeling Through Experience where people would come. Tell us about that a little bit.
[Doug]: Tim, I'm sure you've seen a fair share of films in your day, but you'll have a paradigm shift of your understanding of what it means to experience a film when you look out onto a full audience and, you know, anywhere from a quarter to a third or more of the audience is experiencing the film through tactile ASL, through visual ASL, through audio description, through really large open captions on the screen. And it just really was such a beautiful way to kind of understand or understand deeper what it means to experience a film.
[Tim]: Things are better for disabled people than they were 10 years ago, but are they significantly better or are they in danger of slipping back again?
[Marlee]: I'm pleased to see greater participation, greater authenticity in the film business. At the same time, I want to be able to say, look, I don't want this to be the, this recognition to be the flavor of the month. I want it to go beyond this period, I want it to go beyond this. I don't want it to be the flavor of the year even.
[Tim]: If there is a filmmaker out there, you know, director, writer, or a show runner on television, who is thinking of casting a DeafBlind actor, what advice would you give this person?
[Robert]: You know what I want executives to know whether they be directors, production companies, my biggest thing is just simply, don't be afraid. And I think that Feeling Through has really shown people again, the community at large, who we are. And they may never have thought of us, you know, other than Helen Keller, as part of the community, and that we live independently and that we're here. So to partner and collaborate with places like the Helen Keller National Center, and to learn more about us, but recognize that we can be part of the film. We are part of your everyday life. We walk the earth, we go to work, we do everything that you do. So why wouldn't we be represented? And so I think that again, you mentioned having a hearing actor, a hearing-sighted actor do this. I don't think that that would work because they don't have the experience of who I am and what my experiences have been. So quite simply we are here, we are ready, we are willing, and we want to be involved. And we want to just show people who we are. Invite us. Don't be afraid.