Journeys of Discovery - a Documentary Film

JOURNEYS OF DISCOVERY is a feature documentary about professor Jean Berube, who led a quiet revolution in educational engagement. She is a pioneer in experiential education, using physical challenges and team building with deaf and hard of hearing students at Gallaudet University to build personal confidence and community.

In 1992, Berube began taking Gallaudet students to locations around the world (Japan, India, South Africa, Romania, Philippines, Mexico, Russia, Haiti, Guatemala), providing experiential learning activities as a model for bringing people with disabilities, minorities, and diverse communities together in orphanages, prison schools, theater companies, peace-building organizations, non-government organizations, hearing public schools, and schools for the deaf and hard of hearing. Each workshop changed people’s lives and perspectives of their fellow humans and the planet.

Berube created opportunities to respond to conflict and cross-cultural barriers with love on a global scale, all the while working with students at Gallaudet. For over 45 years, tens of thousands of students, local community members, and people all over the world participated in this experiential learning program with transformational impact in their own lives and success.

Journeys of Discovery will examine the ways that this quiet revolution changed lives and influenced our world.  The documentary includes re-enactments, multi-cultural traditions, interviews with Berube, and with a range of leaders and participants representing both the students and their counterparts in other nations.  

Uniquely, this film will incorporate both American Sign Language and spoken speech, conveying the full emotional range of ASL communication as a featured part of the story.  Innovative filming techniques will familiarize the audiences with the visual and kinesthetic aspect of storytelling that is part and parcel of the deaf experience. 

At a time when our world seems to be more divided than ever, Journeys of Discovery presents a model of bridge-building and heart-to-heart connection that is desperately needed today.

To Donate to the film, please click the blue DONATE link and arrow below.  Thank you for your tax deductible donation for the production of the film.