Deaf Truffaut on l'Epee

This is a 2 minutes video clip of a French deaf historian, Bernard Truffaut, signing in LSF the story of how l'Epee met the two deaf girls, an event which led him to establish the world's first public manual (signing) school for the deaf in Paris.

This event is considered a French deaf "genesis" legend very much comparable to the American deaf "genesis" story of Thomas Gallaudet meeting Alice Cogswell in Hartford, Connecticut. Both "creation" or "genesis" events resulted in the establishment of schools which, in turn, had standardized sign languages and created deaf communities - a pattern common to almost all deaf communities in the world.

This video (the Epee legend) also serves as a historical background of the metaphors used in the second video clip in the 5th chapter, Siepee's Monastery, of the Deaf Child mythology. Click here to go to that clip.

The video was shot in a cafe in Orleans, France during the early summer of 1992. Much gratitude goes to Bernard who was willing to sign out his own sacred story to me.