Attendees

High school students,  students in the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Audiovisual Communication at the UPF and ARSENAL Projects and En Residència 

Description of the activity

This module proposed an approach to sign language and deafness from the audiovisual field, understood as communication tools and, at the same time, perspectives, bodies and narratives that transform the way stories are told. The session was structured across three different parts:

Introductory information on sign language and the deaf community to place participants in a cultural, social and linguistic framework;

A critical review of the presence of deafness and sign language in series and films (both in Spain and abroad);

Testimony and experience of Carlos Soroa, a deaf actor with a well-established career in audiovisual and stage projects shared with deaf and hearing impaired people (from series such as Bienvenidos a Edén to the theatrical show Manual básico de lengua de signos para romper corazones). 

Delfina Aliaga

Aliaga was born in Barcelona and has been deaf since birth, born into a family of deaf people. She has a bachelor’s degree in Social Education and has worked as a CSL teacher (Catalan Sign Language) and has been a researcher for more than 25 years at the Pompeu Fabra University. She has also presented training courses, activities at associations, CSL workshops, and more. She has worked as a presenter for Webvisual via the internet, where she presented different formats and series. She has also participated as an actress in theatre, cinema and dance within the deaf community, as well as in Vernacular Visual.

Mireia Isal

Isal was born in Barcelona in 1993. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Translation and Interpreting (English and Catalan Sign Language) from the UPF, and she holds a master’s degree in teaching. Since 2015, she has worked as a sign language interpreter in different fields such as education; in post-compulsory and higher education; politics, such as in the Parliament of Catalonia; and the arts, where she has performed in numerous concerts and plays providing CSL in theatres and festivals in Catalonia. She currently also works as an associate professor at the UPF, where she teaches Catalan Sign Language interpretation courses.

Carlos Soroa

Soroa was born in Madrid and has been deaf since birth. His language is Spanish Sign Language. A career actor since childhood, he has trained and worked professionally in film, television and theatre. On television, he has participated in the TVE series Centro Médico and has been one of the main characters over the two seasons of the Netflix series Bienvenidos a Edén, becoming the first deaf actor to star in a series on a digital platform. On film, he has starred in several short films, such as Sí a todo by Roberto Pérez Toledo and Sorda by Eva Libertad, and he has recently participated in the feature films Aída y vuelta by Paco León and Todo arde by Samantha López. On stage, he has starred in several works linked to sign language and deaf culture.