Photo by: Brenden Cowan
From 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday Feb. 3, the Brock American Sign Language (ASL) Club will be hosting a movie night in Building 1 of Foundry Lofts.
The movie chosen for this event is Sound of Metal, the story of a drummer whose hearing starts to deteriorate. Alex Francoz, second year concurrent education major and Brock ASL Club vice-president, says that the movie is both engaging and highlights issues faced by the deaf community.
“We chose Sound of Metal for this event for a few reasons,” said Francoz. “First, it received high praise, and one of our execs had watched it and vouched that it’s a good movie. Second, the movie talks a lot about the deaf community, learning sign language and the fact that any person can become disabled or deaf without warning. Sound of Metal highlights the importance of supporting the deaf community and will be a fun way for people to learn about it and connect to each other.”
Francoz also mentioned how this event has been a new experience for the club, as this is the first time the current executives have hosted an event like this.
“The ASL club has not hosted events like this since before COVID-19,” he said. “Our executive team is almost entirely new, with the exception of our president. The planning for this event has had one or two bumps along the way, but for the most part we’ve been very lucky and bringing things together has been smooth sailing. The whole team is excited for this event and knows it will be a fun opportunity to connect better with the ASL club members and our fellow Brock students.”
He went on to say that the team believes this event will help showcase some of the issues faced by the deaf community.
“It’s been a very fun experience for the whole team, and we are all excited for the community and connection it will bring to the ASL club, and the awareness the event could bring to the deaf community. We are of course hoping, as well, that this event brings some attention to the ASL club and brings in a few new members.”
As for the future, Francoz mentions that they have two more events lined up this semester, and are currently planning more.
“We are planning on running a conversational night in late-February for the ASL club members,” he said. “It will be a two-hour event where club members will get to hang out, play cards and practice their ASL skills in a food-filled and conversational setting.”
“We are also planning on running another movie night in tandem with the Horror club in late March,” he continued. “This event will be open to all Brock students, but the movie is still undecided. We have some other events in the works in tandem with other clubs, but the details are not yet ready to be released. We are excited for all our events this semester.”
Anyone interested in attending the movie night this Friday must RSVP on the event’s ExperienceBU page.