Filmmaker’s ‘Will to Communicate’ Breaks through Community’s Silence

For two and a half years, filmmaker, peace activist and George Mason University doctoral student Oded Adomi Leshem visited a small village in his homeland of Israel that is home to a unique community.

El-Sayed is a Bedouin village in the Negev desert. It is not on an Israeli map, is almost impossible to find without knowing exactly where to look, and it holds the largest per-capita population of deaf people in the world. A genetic legacy passed through the generations, the deafness is simply a part of the community and history of El-Sayed.

Villagers there have developed a distinctive sign language over generations. Due to its semi-isolation from the world, hearing aids and other medical interventions were practically unheard of for the deaf community of El-Sayed. Leshem discovered the village when he saw two young boys using sign language at a store, and followed his curiosity into a remarkable journey and new friendships that transcended language barriers.

Leshem, who is working on a degree in conflict analysis and resolution, spent his first six months in El-Sayed simply meeting people and learning sign language. It took what he calls “the will to communicate,” a determination to learn and understand other human beings, to bridge the gap created not just by deafness, but by his inability to speak sign language and by the remote location of El-Sayed. Leshem’s documentary, “Voices from El-Sayed,” chronicles the tumultuous year in which one father pursued the possibility of getting a cochlear implant for his son, an option that would at least offer a chance for the boy to be able to hear, but one that simultaneously divided the community. It is a story that reevaluates opinions about the significance of disability and communication in the modern world.

Movie still from Oded Leshem’s movie “Voices from El-Sayed.” Photo courtesy of Leshem.

Bringing a camera to El-Sayed, a village without municipal services, showed Leshem how technology changes interaction. His Bedouin friends, people who had given him the ability to communicate in this sometimes insular community, became shy about recording their own stories. “These are not people who talk about themselves,” Leshem says.

Leshem describes himself as a peace activist, but notes that it isn’t a vocation he chose; it’s part of him, the natural extension of his beliefs. At all times, he seems to be a man with so much faith in the connections between people—“We have so much in common, but sometimes we forget” he notes—that his nature naturally lent itself to conflict studies and to people overcoming their differences.

Leshem was attracted to George Mason because of its faculty. He was looking for experts in the study of conflict, and the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution stood out to him. He is a presidential scholar at the university, and his current research focuses on the sociological and psychological aspects of intractable conflicts, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sometimes Leshem begins talks about his film with sign language, introducing himself before ever saying a word. He wants people to understand that, as he says, “Language is just a small part of communication.”

“Voices from El-Sayed” has been featured at more than 60 film festivals and universities. It received the Excellence Award at the Superfest International Disability Film Festival in 2011 and won the Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at the Full Frame International Documentary Festival.

After receiving his doctorate from Mason, Leshem hopes to become a teacher and continue contributing to the body of research about long-term, intractable conflicts. He wants to inspire a new generation of peace activists in his homeland and around the world.