Strong Language

Programme Outline

This powerful and intriguing drama explores the story of Zoë Lyons, a deaf teenager struggling to establish her identity and independence. Brought up in a ‘hearing’ family, and encouraged since childhood to speak rather than sign, Zoë’s discovery of the language and world of the deaf draws her into conflict with her parents, teachers and other students at her mainstream school. During the film however, she finds allies, and the conclusion affirms her stand and newly found confidence in herself as a deaf person.

The drama can be divided into five sections:

00:00-04.35: Family and School

In the opening scene, Zoë storms out of the classroom feeling hurt by the behaviour of other members of the class. We later learn that she is increasingly in trouble at school. After years of being expected to speak and inhabit the hearing world without question, Zoë is struggling to realise her deaf identity. Sign language is her language, and is a vital part of the deaf culture she now embraces. Though she has the support of her hearing sister, Karen, herself the mother of a deaf child, Zoë’s parents are hurt, anxious and deeply frustrated by the breakdown of communication with their daughter. They are fearful of the change in Zoë, do not understand her, and are worried about losing her.

04:35-09:20: Education

Zoë is summoned to the Headteacher. We meet Ben, another deaf student and a good friend, who has a different way of dealing with the conflict between deaf and hearing worlds. While Zoë feels impelled to fight the battle publicly, Ben takes a quieter, more understated approach. Zoë is given an ultimatum by the Headteacher – she has to prove that she is willing to change, to really try at school. Her media studies teacher supports her and encourages her to find something she really cares about as the subject for a long-overdue assignment, to get involved and show she is prepared to change. As she thinks about her sister’s words, ‘Don’t be like me, Zoë,’ the click of a camera shutter provides the inspiration.

09:20-13:51: Relationships

Zoë and her sister Karen go out for the evening with Ben and his well-meaning, but irritating, cousin Dennis. They go to a deaf club and enjoy it, despite Dennis’s non-stop jokes and Ben’s embarrassed attempts to shut him up. For Karen, the evening is simply a welcome diversion from a troubled relationship and a difficult life at home. Zoë and Ben go off together to take some photographs and Karen leaves with Dennis. On Westminster Bridge much later, neither Zoë nor Ben want the evening to end. Ben explains to Zoë the power of the ‘deaf heart’, and the strength and pride which is part of their deaf identity – which they both feel at that moment.

13:51-18:20: Work

Zoë is on a work experience placement at the offices of a magazine. After a troubled introduction to the world of work with a journalist who doesn’t know she is deaf, Zoë is placed with Mark who designs layouts. Mark is partially deaf too, and has learned to negotiate the difficulties of working in a hearing world. He shows Zoë what is possible, not just through technology, but through the power of belief and commitment. Zoë minicoms Ben at home, alive with the possibilities of using this experience, both to satisfy the demands of school for proof that she is really trying, and to make her own statement.

18:20-23:36: Media

Zoë is rushing to complete her assignment for school. Quite what it is, we are not sure, but it involves interviews with Ben, Mark, Karen and herself, all shot on video and then handed to Ben to transcribe. The deadline is getting closer and Zoë has a lot to prove. At the magazine office she sorts out the pictures she has taken, and adds them to the interviews that Ben faxes through to her. Anxious it won’t be finished but at the same time exhausted, she leaves the final task of making copies to Mark and goes home to sleep. While she sleeps, her mother watches Zoë’s own interview on video and begins to understand. At school the next morning, Zoë’s teacher receives copies of ‘The Way I See It’, the magazine Zoë has been working so hard to complete. It features the experiences of Mark, Ben, Karen, and Zoë’s own story, as testimony to her own identity and her impulse to reach out and help people to understand her world. From the closing images of the film, it seems that people do want to understand. Thanks to Ben, who is proudly giving out copies, as Zoë walks to school, everyone she passes is reading the magazine.