Background video. 2019

Film, edit and screenplay: Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen
Length: 11:26 min
Subtitles: Finnish
Projection for a speech written by PhD/FT Reima Välimäki.
Presented at The DIDA Festival (Disability Day) 2019/12/3.

The video is a sarcastic depiction of a helpless and unimaginative priest trying to communicate orally with a deaf parishioner. It presents awkward  misuse of power as the priest is trying to force her message through instead of focusing on two-way interaction.

”Surprisingly many historical manuals contain instructions on how a priest should act in cases where he was not sure if the member of the church understood what he meant. One of the bestsellers of the genre and a model for later books was the Summa de casibus poenitentiae written by the Dominican Raymundus Penafortian in the 1220s. According to Raymund, the priest ’had to do what he could to lead a deaf member to remorse and repentance, using words, text, nods, signs and other ways he could’. If communication was impossible, the priest had to pray for the deaf person and make the other congregation pray too.”