Film Screening: The Tuba Thieves

Framed by an inexplicable series of tuba thefts from Los Angeles schools in the early 2010s, d/Deaf artist and filmmaker Alison O’Daniel’s debut feature film uses the instrument’s absence from these bands to explore what it means to listen. Featuring Deaf collaborators such as artist Christine Sun Kim and Nyke Prince, who portrays a deaf drummer in the film, the film threads together re-enactments of historical moments where audiences experienced music through inaudible frequencies. These include the premiere of John Cage’s 4’33’, the final punk show at San Francisco’s Deaf Club, and Prince’s surprise Purple Rain tour show at the Deaf university Gallaudet in Washington, DC. Creating a cinematic language that centres deafness in a world of audism, O’Daniel retunes the sounds of d/Deaf cinema and how it is experienced.

At entry, guests will be offered inflated balloons to feel the vibrations of the soundtrack and access the film with heightened sonic and tactile sensitivities. O’Daniel refers to this practice as “Heavy Air,” which pays homage to the Deaf clubs that invited d/Deaf community members to experience films together in this way.

Written and directed by Alison O'Daniel, based on musical scores by Christine Sun Kim, Steve Roden, and Ethan Frederick Greene
Starring Nyeisha "Nyke" Prince, Russell Harvard, Geovanny Marroquin and Warren "Wawa" Snipe
Produced by Alison O’Daniel, Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph, Rachel Nederveld
Executive Produced by Wendy Ettinger, Maida Lynn
Consulting Producer Alysa Nahmias
Cinematography by Derek Howard, Meena Singh and Judy Phu
Edited by Zack Khalil and Alison O’Daniel

This film has open captions and ASL. The introduction and Q&A will have ASL interpretation.

The CAMH Auditorium is located inside the CAMH McCain Centre for Complex Care and Recovery at 1025 Queen Street West is fully wheelchair accessible.

This film screening is part of The Whole World in Our Hands, an invitation to break apart, remodel, and act out new grammars of empathy and togetherness. Composed of public artworks, experiential workshops, and a film made by, for, and with disabled artists and collaborators, this program asks: how does the presence of blindness, deafness, illness, and neurodiversity nurture a language that is sensed rather than spoken? What are the syntaxes of touch, smell, sound, and movement? With the understanding that everyone plays a role in how disability is experienced, The Whole World in Our Hands embraces our shared responsibility for making livable worlds for all.

Curated by Jacqui Usiskin, The Whole World in Our Hands exhibition in campus spaces runs September 3, 2024–January 7, 2025 at the University of Toronto Missisauga.

To learn more about The Whole World in Our Hands and the contributors, visit the .

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Image: Alison O’Daniel, The Tuba Thieves (film still), 2023. US, American Sign Language and English with open captions, 91 min. Cinematography by Derek Howard, Meena Singh, Judy Phu. Courtesy the artist and The Cinema Guild.

Image description: A close up of a shiny brass tuba, surrounded by darkness. Light blue text overlays the bottom of the image, reading: "[LOW TOWNS AND VIBRATING CLICKS...]." To the left of the image , white text reads: "The Tuba Thieves / Film Screening." At bottom right, white text reads: "December 5, 2024 / CAMH Auditorium, Toronto." At bottom left, white texts reads "Alison O'Daniel in conversation with Darrin Martin. At top centre, white text reads: "The Blackwood,"Text and image are against a gradient background with hues of aqua, green, and yello, with three circular shapes.

Host or Publisher Blackwood Gallery