Oregon Historical Society hosts screening of ‘Deafula’, the first feature film shot in ASL

The film “Deafula” tells the story of a man who comes to realize he’s a vampire. But what makes the 1975 movie unique is that it was the first feature-length 35 mm film to be shot entirely in American Sign Language. The film’s star and director was deaf, and the film created a singular experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences at the time. It was shot in Portland and produced by Oregonian Gary Holstrom. For hearing audience members, a soundtrack with a translation of the dialogue is part of the original film, along with a music track. “Deafula” was last screened in 1975 at the Paramount Theatre. The film will be shown for the first time since then to a sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Theater on Thursday. Because of popular demand, the Oregon Historical Society is planning to bring it back for a second screening in early 2024. Holstrom joins us to talk about the making of the film and its unique place in cinematic history.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The film “Deafula,” which was shot in Portland in 1975, tells a story of a man who comes to realize he’s a vampire. It was the first feature length 35mm film to be shot entirely in American Sign Language. It was created by Peter Wechsberg, the film’s star and director, and Gary Holstrom, the producer. “Deafula” was last screened in Portland in 1975. Nearly 50 years later, it will be shown tomorrow night at the Hollywood Theatre. Gary Holstrom joins us to talk about the making of the film and its unique place in cinematic history.

Gary, you were working at US Bank in Portland in the early 1970s. What was your job?

Gary Holstrom: I was an administrator of a communication design center, [educating] and [orienting] the 4,000+ employees of US Bank. We were doing a lot of media productions and other types of communications through this center.

Miller: So making training films for bank employees?

Holstrom: Yeah, training films. At that time film was the only thing available, although there was video coming into a consumer grade. But at that time, the only thing we really had was some industrial video and film to use to train employees.

Miller: You eventually hired someone named Peter Wechsberg. Can you tell us about him?

Holstrom: Yes, Peter is a totally deaf individual. He graduated from Gallaudet College. He traveled with the National Theatre of the Deaf. And he was, before I hired him, a producer and commentator for News Sign4, a sign news segment on KRON TV in San Francisco, which was an NBC affiliate.

Miller: Where did the idea of creating a feature length movie in American Sign Language come from?

Holstrom: Well, Peter had come to work with me, and of course, I didn’t know sign language, or any of my staff. But I spent a lot of time with him those first couple of years before we had a conversation about doing something that would service the deaf community. Because the deaf community has really been underserved in so many ways during that time, especially in entertainment. And because [of] Peter’s background with the National Theater of the Deaf, and also he went to Brooks film school, we thought “let’s do a film.” And my thought was let’s not do just any film, let’s do it right. Let’s do a film that was feature length, shot in 35mm widescreen format, no captions, available nationally. Fun, exciting, and then shot in sign language using deaf actors. So that was what we came up with. It is truly the first of its kind.

Miller: Why make a movie based on Dracula?

Holstrom: I think a lot of it had to do with not only cost, but also the emotional and somewhat spiritual nature of a horror film. We didn’t want to make it the worst of the horror genre, but we certainly wanted to do a light comedy, light horror film that Peter thought would be something the deaf community would really enjoy.

Miller: Can you tell us the basic plot of the movie, I guess leaving out spoilers?

Holstrom: It’s about the son of Dracula and his quest spiritually and physically through his life. It has a lot to do with crimes that were committed and so forth. So it’s kind of a crime drama as well as a kind of a light horror, because of the implication of Dracula.

Miller: I understand that it was shot in a number of locations around Portland. Where did you shoot?

Holstrom: Most notable would be the Pittock mansion in Portland. Ape Cave before Mount Saint Helens erupted. We shot at the Portland train station, downtown restaurants, places that were dark, obviously, for the film, private homes that were open to us. And then the Gorge, because of the scenery. That particular scene had to do with a motorcycle trip that one of the characters made. One of the parts of the film was that the motorcycle went over the cliff into the gorge. So technically, we came up with a camera that we literally tied a rope onto and threw it over the edge of the cliff. So that’s part of the film.

Miller: How much of a filmmaking scene was there in Portland in the mid-1970s?

Holstrom: Very little. Maybe a lot in 16mm and documentaries. But feature films, unless they were coming out of Hollywood, I didn’t know of any that had happened. We had contact with the State Film Center at that time. They didn’t really help us out too much, they were mainly coordinators with Hollywood when Hollywood crews would come up to do films in Oregon, they were at their disposal.

Miller: What does that mean in terms of the technical requirements of making a film? Finding gaffers and electricians and processing film?

Holstrom: Well, the first part of your question, we had an excellent cinematographer who had a lot of film experience. He and his crew were an integral part of making Deafula. As far as the film processing, our dailies became almost weeklies in that there was no processing house in Portland, Oregon, or even in Washington. So all of our daily films were taken to the airport to be flown down to L.A. to get processing done. And then the 16mm working print was shipped back to us so that we can do some minor editing before we moved on to the next week’s filming.

Miller: So you’re always a week behind. You didn’t know what was in the can until a week had gone by.

Holstrom: That’s true. About this time, 49 years ago, we were in full production in October. And it became very critical that we get the film back as quickly as we could because the leaves were turning, and we needed to make sure that we could pick up any scenes quickly before the change in the environment around it.

Miller: What do you remember about the premiere of this movie?

Holstrom: Well, one of Peter’s dreams was to see his name on a marquee. And so as we got finished with the filming and we went into editing, I made arrangements with the restaurant across the street from the Broadway Theatre [in] downtown Portland to set up tables for a premiere dinner on the sky bridge between the two buildings. And that sky bridge just happened to be within viewing distance of the marquee for the Broadway Theater. I remember Peter’s face when he saw that, because that was a dream we had talked about a year or so before.

The other part of the premiere was that I was really into making sure that our soundtrack, or music track in this case, a lot of that music track was done by an organ at various places around Portland. The vibration and the frequency of an organ, especially in a dramatic scene that we had many of in “Deafula” itself, we set up special speakers on the stage on each side of the screen, with the help of Tom Moyer Jr, whose father owned most of the theaters here. And so it was a delight for me personally when we came to those parts of the film where this deep frequency vibration would come up, to see and hear the reaction by those that were deaf.

Miller: Because they feel it in their bodies, the bass that you embedded.

Holstrom: Very much so. There were screams, screams of joy, applause. It was just fantastic. Not too many hearing people knew what was going on, but certainly the deaf population, it was just a wonderful experience for me, as I think it was for them.

Miller: As for all of our conversation, we are going to have a transcript of this conversation available within the week.

Let’s listen to the beginning of the trailer for “Deafula,” which was both signed and had a voiceover.

Peter Wechsberg [voiceover recording]: Test. Test. Is this thing on? Oh, it is! OK, listen man. Hi, my name is Wolf Wechsberg. Wolf Wechs for short. We’d like to invite all you groovy dudes to check out our flick, “Deafula.” It’s got to be the first full length feature - man, this thing runs 95 minutes - produced entirely in sign language. Can you dig it? Here’s some short scenes.

Miller: You mentioned watching the audience at the premiere. What did you hear in the weeks and months that followed from deaf or hard of hearing audiences around the country?

Holstrom: We did do quite a bit of response gathering from different places that we showed the film. One of the best reviews that I had seen personally was from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, when one of the people who sponsored the film there said that their audience, which were deaf folks, mainly students, really enjoyed the movie. And to say that they didn’t enjoy the movie would be certainly false. They were attentive, they were fascinated, they were amused, and at times downright horrified. But the most important thing this person said was that they understood. And I think as you look into sign language being so visual, so expressive, so emotional, and many times so visceral, this meant a lot to me to hear that. The impact of sign language on a screen, most of these people had never seen that before. And so this added to the whole excitement of the responses that we got. And most of the responses were extremely positive.

Miller: As you’re describing this, it strikes me that one of the things that is important here is that the sign language in the movie, it seems like it made it more dramatic for everybody. Is that a fair way to put it?

Holstrom: I think so. I think even for the hearing population that saw the movie, sign language was really kind of a “in” thing at that time in the ‘70s. It was offered more in colleges and universities as a course. And I think a lot of the people who are hearing, who knew some sign language, really recognized the difference between sign language and the spoken word.

And when you look at it on the screen, it’s important to concentrate on the sign language and not worry about that literal translation that we have on the voice track. It’s a stark difference. And to concentrate on the sign language allows you to see how really, truly expressive and emotional sign language can be versus the spoken word.

Miller: The last time “Deafula” was screened anywhere, if I understand this correctly, was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1997. Why hasn’t it been screened anywhere in the last 25-plus years?

Holstrom: Well, it’s a long story. But the problem was shortly after we released the film, we had a contract with the Caption Center, which was part of the HEW governmental department, Health Education and Welfare was what they used to call it. And the caption center had one goal, and that was to put subtitles on feature length films out of Hollywood. And when we came along, this was a new thing for them. They really didn’t know what to do. They wanted to caption the film. We said, no, you don’t need to caption the film. What you need to do is just get it out to the deaf audiences. So they bought some 16mm prints from us. It was a two year contract, or depending on the life of the print. We thought that would be a good way to get the word out.

But unfortunately, they decided before those prints got any worse, that they would make VHS copies of that 16mm, and that was when VHS would just started. Well, that was a violation of our copyright as well as our contract. But what it did eventually was create multiple generations of piracy. And it actually ended up being pirated all around the world. So we lost the market completely within four years after we released the film. And therefore, we haven’t done anything since then to revitalize it.

Miller: But there is going to be a screening that’s sold out tomorrow at Hollywood Theatre. Will Oregonians be able to see it again?

Holstrom: Well, we hope that the Oregon Historical Society, and thank you to them, will be interested in bringing it back in the spring again for a Portland showing. We’re negotiating with them now. And we have very positive feelings that it will come back in the early spring.

Miller: Gary Holstrom, thanks very much.

Holstrom: You bet. Thank you.

Miller: Gary Holstrom is the producer of the 1975 film, “Deafula.” It is being screened for the first time in 50 years in Portland tomorrow.

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