It is tempting to dismiss this well-meaning but clunky documentary about the video archive of the British Deaf Association as of interest to the deaf community only. But the cache of film clips, dating back nearly a century, reveals a secret history that has been largely ignored by the hearing world – and as such, it’s perhaps just as important that the film finds a hearing audience as it does a deaf one. Power in Our Hands recalls a time, in the first half of the 20th century, when deaf people were essentially regarded as second-class citizens and were reluctant to use sign language in public. The hostility was such that, as one commentator reveals, it was not unusual for deaf people to be pelted with stones. It traces the birth of a deaf community, and of advocacy and ultimately militancy in the service of equal rights. However, important as the issues are, it is hard to maintain that this somewhat amateurish film needs to be seen in a cinema.
