Japanese Documentary on Helen Keller Filmed at Perkins
A team from NHK Japan Public Broadcasting Corporation has spent a good deal of this summer in the US creating two documentary programs to celebrate the life and legacy of Helen Keller during her 130th birthday year.
The crew (sound engineer Masaki Kawai, renowned director of photography Yukio Minami, stateside producer Kayoko Mitsumatsu, and director Miwa Yoshimine) filmed students and educators at Perkins to capture modern day methods of educating children who, like Helen Keller, are deafblind. Keller’s famous “Miracle Worker” teacher Annie Sullivan was a graduate of Perkins, and brought Keller to Boston to study at the school in the late 1800’s.
A 90-minute Helen Keller documentary special profiles her life, dispelling myths and depicting her true self. Interviews capturing Perkins students and an alumnus seek to reveal "contemporary Helen Kellers" working toward their highest potential for independent living. The program is slated to air sometime in October in Japan.
In a 30-minute educational documentary, NHK will focus on comparing deafblind education and lifestyle in Japan versus the US. Practices and policies in Japan lag behind the US, since deafblindness is not yet recognized as an independent disability there. Mitsumatsu and her colleagues hope to enlighten viewers about the potential and the possibilities when people who are deafblind are included in society.
The crew from Japan NHK were guided in their exploration of deafblind education by Perkins School for the Blind professionals such as Assistant Director of Education Services Martha Majors in Perkins Deafblind Program. Majors has worked on the Perkins campus and educated teachers around the world for more than 30 years.
RSS
Bookmark
