MISINTERPRETATION

MISINTERPRETATION tells the story of a brilliant Deaf woman and the one ASL interpreter who can keep up with her. It was love at first sign. But as the relationship grows, a new dynamic builds; she can’t hear, and he doesn’t listen.
[SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH & TRANSCRIPT IN COMMENTS BELOW]
These are just a few scenes from a full production, coming - we hope - soon.
Starring
Amber Zion
Alek Lev
Kay Daigle
Trevor Murphy
Reedy Gibbs
Josh Breslow
with
Karla Gutierrez
Morgan Pepper
Ryan Letts
Carly Hustedt
Written, edited, and directed by Alek Lev
Produced by Jules Dameron and Alek Lev
Cinematography by Timmy Vatterott
Original music by Justin Asher
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[@HeatherWithrow]

Looooooove! The credits came up and I'm like, "Already?!!! Noooo. I want more!"

[@shaday1490]

Are you going to continue this movie?

[@Lastat1011]

cool!

[@wingwoo6309]

Champs!

[@JulesDameron]

[TRANSCRIPT:]
TITLE: “The Day Dakota Met Matthew”
(music)
TITLE: Congresswoman Hasting’s Staff Meeting, Week 1
Seven or eight STAFFERS sit around a CONFERENCE TABLE. DAKOTA awaits her turn. Sitting directly in front of her is KAY, an ASL interpreter, interpreting. STEVE is at the end of his turn.
STEVE: From what I'm seeing, you can wait until March or April for the re-elect, because your base is strong and you’re going to have enough earned media by that time that we can keep the war chest until late spring. Now, that’d be my recommendation, and I can share date with you whenever you’re ready.
CONGRESSWOMAN: Thanks, Steve. I think we can all agree on that. DAKOTA?
DAKOTA signs her answer. KAY voices what she is saying. However, DAKOTA signs very quickly and KAY has trouble keeping up.
DAKOTA: (ASL) I think moving the re- election campaign back completely ignores the constituency groups that are going to be hardest to phone bank, and hardest for door- knocks...
KAY: I think that if we go ahead and ... do the campaign... and go towards the campaign that... (to DAKOTA, voices and signs) Can you... I’m sorry, can you back up?
DAKOTA: (ASL) To where?
KAY: (painfully apologetic) To the beginning? I’m sorry.
DAKOTA’s frustrated.
TITLE: Week 2
Same conference table meeting and people, different day.
STEVE: If the Chairman won’t listen and the Speaker doesn’t care, I say you bring it to the President when he visits the caucus on Wednesday.
CONGRESSWOMAN: I like it! Dakota?
This time, DAKOTA's interpreter is JOSH. From the moment DAKOTA's hands fly, we see he's completely lost.
DAKOTA: (ASL) I think when you're on the hill this week, you need to lobby hard on the appropriation. They're looking to cut 5-10% across the board on discretionary spending and...
Josh's face says it all: He didn’t catch a word she signed.
DAKOTA: Oh come ON!
TITLE: Week 3
And... yet again, a different day with the same conference table and staffers.
CONGRESSWOMAN: DAKOTA... do you want to ...?
DAKOTA looks at her interpreter, MATTHEW. He smiles, ready to work. She smiles. But then:
DAKOTA: (ASL, still smiling) You better not suck.
MATTHEW is floored. She fires away.
DAKOTA/MATTHEW: In the last two weeks, there has been a serious uptick in constituent complaint about perceived ADA violations...
She checks in with MATTHEW... Is he following? Yes? Oh good. Everyone in the room sits up a bit. She continues.
DAKOTA/MATTHEW: …which in most cases seem more like willful disregard for civil rights than any misunderstanding of the legislation...
She checks in again. He smiles. She smiles. is building. She takes a deep breath. She's now...
During the following speech, we see an almost connection happening between them.
DAKOTA/MATTHEW: We've been hearing that city officials are claiming some sort of grandfather clause, permitting non- compliance with Title II in certain situations... basically exempting them from providing reasonable accommodations. One city official said that it’s just "Small stuff." "Small stuff?" What's that? It's only small if you have a small enough mind to not understand how big things are for real people with real problems. And a "grandfather" clause? We're in year 25 of the ADA. We should call it a “great- grandfather clause”, if it's anything. But it's not anything. It's made up. We don't grandfather in discrimination and we don't grandfather in bigotry!
Silence in the room... except for DAKOTA and MATTHEW's heavy breathing. That took a lot out of them. Then: APPLAUSE from the room. As the applause continues:
CONGRESSWOMAN: Thanks everyone, great meeting today! (to two other staffers) Can I see you two over here?
DAKOTA and MATTHEW are staring at each like there is no one else in the universe.
DAKOTA: (ASL) I'm DAKOTA.
MATTHEW: (ASL) I'm MATTHEW
DAKOTA: (ASL) Wanna see my office?
DAKOTA and MATTHEW race into Dakota’s small office. They attack, kissing each other.
CUT TO BLACK
In the middle of a park, during the day. DAKOTA and MATTHEW are in the middle of an argument. MATTHEW tries to slow things down. The entire conversation is in ASL.
MATTHEW: Alright, here’s an idea: Let’s go out to dinner. I know a place where the shrimp is amazing.
DAKOTA: See? You’re not thinking about me! About what I need?
MATTHEW: What are you talking about?
DAKOTA: Shrimp is not a deaf food!
Matthew stands in stunned silence.
DAKOTA: I need my hands to talk, and I need my hands to eat shrimp.
MATTHEW: I need my mouth to talk, and I need my mouth to eat everything!
DAKOTA: You don’t understand me.
MATTHEW: That is correct.
Credits Roll.
THE END

[@frankiesilver3685]

Cute! KISS FIST