Multimodality on Screen and the Filmic Potential of Sign Languages

This chapter reviews the representation of multimodality on screen and the filmic potential of sign languages. In the introduction, I review the concept of multimodality, gesture and language and I state my positionality in this academic writing in particular. In Sect. 2, I revisit the concept of multilingualism and multimodality in the audiovisual context and I discuss the representation of sign languages both as target and as source languages of audiovisual communication. In Sect. 3, I review the implications of multimodality in the media on the profile of signers and on training, among others. In Sect. 4, I argue in favour of the filmic potential of sign languages. Finally, in the conclusions, I point at the need of a profound revision of the hegemony of oral languages in filmmaking and I argue that the audiovisual industry is an active stakeholder in the systematic denial to participate to deaf people. Finally, I advocate for non-dichotomic views and fuzziness in our understanding of audiovisual communication.