THE SIGN FOR LOVE

Israel / Documentary / Hebrew with English subtitles / 2017 / 75 mins - Watch trailer here. 

In The Sign for Love, a heartfelt documentary, co-director and subject Elad Cohen explores the meaning and experience of family. Growing up deaf and gay in a family of hearing people, Cohen never felt at home and always felt alone. That feeling of estrangement was exacerbated during his adolescence by the sudden death of his mother and the subsequent rift with his father as the family scattered in different directions. Cohen creates a sense of family with a small group of friends, including his best friend, Yaeli, a deaf woman. While he wants a child and a life partner, he fears that he won’t find the right man in the small deaf community in his “sweet little country.” Sharing a desire with Yaeli to be parents, the new “couple” decide to have a child in a shared parenting arrangement.

As new parents, Elad and Yaeli soon realize the naïveté in their expectations about bringing up a baby together. Their journey reveals the challenges of parenting, the bias against deaf individuals and the intricacies of human relationships. Ultimately their newborn helps Cohen become a more complete person and allows him to mend his relationship with his own father.

Director and film's subject Elad Cohen will be speaking on Wednesday, July 21, at 12 pm PDT.  Register here for the conversation.

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This is A Wider Lens program sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, A Wider Bridge and the EBIJFF. The CCJCC is promotional co-sponsor.