Imamura Ayako: Japanese Deaf Filmmaker and University Professor

I completed my teaching practicum for the University of Arizona at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in some past century.  I've always enjoyed the time I spent with my Deaf/deaf friends and colleagues while in the US.  My current city, Suncheon, has a rather large deaf community, and I have always enjoyed spending time with the group and with individual friends.

Topics on Deaf Japan is a blog I follow regularly.  Recently, I read a couple of posts at ToDJ about Imamura Ayako who is a Deaf filmmaker in Japan and who also happens to teach Japanese Sign Language at Nagoya Gakuin University, which is a private university in Nagoya.

Imamura Ayako made and released a short movie some time ago about Deaf people who were in the region of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resultant tsunami that devastated many areas of Japan.  One can correctly surmise that many Deaf people in those areas never knew of the evacuation announcements and orders that were broadcast using the community alert systems and loudspeakers.

Read a couple of posts about her at the Topics on Deaf Japan blog here and here.

Learn more about Imamura Ayako at her website here.  She has a couple of short clips of her film on her site that can be seen here.