Fairy Tales in Sign Language

Since 2011 we have been making fairy tale films in German Sign Language (DGS) with deaf and hearing impaired children in Berlin.

It is always nice to see how the children grow on their tasks during the projects and how they present the charming result to the outside world with much joy and pride. This increases their self-confidence as well as the self-conception of the use of sign language in public. Together with the children we have developed an aesthetic and visual language that appeals to deaf and hearing people alike.

In addition to the content-related discussion of the fairy tale with the children, we create an open space for them by encouraging them in a playful way and confirming that they can do everything that is important for a film. The children tell the fairy tale in their own language, the German Sign Language (DGS), design the backgrounds, props and costumes with us and are the actors themselves. In a working atmosphere in which mistakes are allowed. For us, education also means creating moments in which people meet and touch each other in a special way. It is wonderful to observe how children learn as a matter of course that they can successfully master difficult situations and challenges by their own efforts and contribute to creating fairy tales that are shown at film festivals and on television.

The project aims to create an awareness for children who depend on the use of sign language as a valuable means of communication in order to be able to express, communicate and exchange freely.

We believe that children feel better in a society where they are visible - in public, in film and television, in art and culture. We would like to see the greatest possible diversity in the media and hopefully, at some point, normality, and we would like to contribute to this with our films.

Our wish is to make the fairy tale films in sign language equally accessible to deaf and hearing children and families, to gain more attention and to be able to create further projects with deaf children.

We see the fairy tales in German Sign Language (DGS) also in the field of media education and art education, in schools and libraries and would be very happy if the DVD would be distributed there.

The number of films for deaf children is negligible.
In addition, the children are often very underestimated. The films show with how much joy, humour and exuberance the children take part in the realisation of the fairy tales and often surpass themselves.

Sign language fascinates by its complexity and differentiated possibilities of expression. It has been recognised as an independent language since 2002, is not international and takes place visually spatially. As its grammar is fundamentally different from that of the German spoken language, the written language, which is based on spoken language, is difficult for deaf people to understand and grasp.

We would like to take the fairy tale films in sign language out into the world through the DVD and present them to the widest possible public. We would also like to create many more projects in sign language with children.

Production of the DVD & the Rewards. Financing of graphics and design, translation and production of subtitles in German and English, programming and production of the DVD with 5 fairy tales and bonus material such as Making - Ofs, online shop and shipping.

After reaching our funding goal, the money will be used to produce more DVDs and plan and support further projects with children in German sign language.