A production team from The University of Alabama Center for Public Television (CPT) won an Emmy award on Saturday, September 12 for their short documentary “Visual Vernacular”.
The team comprises students Kailey New (Fort Payne, AL) and Liam Parker (Northport, NY), and CPT staff members Seth Farmer and William Green. They worked in collaboration with communication studies associate professor Dr. Darrin Griffin to find the topic for the project.
“Visual Vernacular” was inspired by the experience of Justin Perez, a former American Sign Language instructor at The University of Alabama. Perez is a fifth-generation Deaf person and has traveled the country teaching classes and workshops on the performance art called visual vernacular.
According to Perez, visual vernacular is a way of storytelling through gestures and pictures and can be effective in communicating with all people.
“It doesn’t matter who I’m talking to—deaf people or hearing people,” he said. “It’s a very easy way of communication and understanding, and it’s just really a part of me.”
You can view the winning short documentary here and learn more about Perez’s story here.
The short documentary was one of six Southeast Emmy nominations for The University of Alabama’s CPT. Four additional College of Communication and Information Sciences (C&IS) students were members of nominated production teams: Montana Maniscalco (Moody, AL); Mack McCollum (Pelham, AL); Nathan Stephenson (Birmingham, AL); and Reagan Wells from (Colombia, MO). The other nominated projects from CPT are listed below.
(* denotes C&IS students)
Southeast Emmy entries are judged by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
