Signs & Wonders

For most hearing Americans, Deafness is misunderstood as a deficit. It's not. It's a difference in communication, and that difference shapes who gets seen, served, and included. Signs & Wonders tells this story through the Black Deaf community of Wilson, North Carolina, where identity, language, and geography converge in a landscape most of the country hasn’t given much consideration. As DEI protections disappear nationwide, Black Deaf communities are among the first erased from the picture entirely.

At the heart of the film is Black American Sign Language (BASL), a distinct dialect born from segregation. BASL carries its own grammar, rhythm, and cultural memory, with echoes of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) but a full language in its own right. Its use declined after integration, but a new generation is reclaiming it. Black Deaf scholars also are documenting its history as a record of resilience.

That history is exactly why representation in interpretation matters so much. Black interpreters don’t just translate words. They recognize the whole person. Without that shorthand, a Black Deaf voice risks being flattened or misread completely.

But there’s a barrier to access on both sides. Signs & Wonders follows Valerie McMillan, who has carried that weight for half her life professionally and her whole life personally, as the only hearing and eldest child of Deaf parents. Now, at a crossroads, she's asking what it looks like to stop being everyone else's bridge and start building something of her own. The central story is about language access, a lifelong advocate who refuses to disappear into her own usefulness, and what happens should she finally step into her own.