“El Canto de Las Manos” starts out with Gustavo Dudamel conducting one of the greatest orchestras in the world in the L.A. Phil, but as he’s quick to admit, it was a long way to the podium, starting out in Venezuela where he first was inspired to pick up a baton as part of El Sistema, a public music program that nurtured the young not necessarily to start careers in the arts, but at least gain the confidence and collaborative spirit required to participate. As any fan of classical music knows or simply anyone living around Los Angeles where he’s been a constant source of inspiration during his tenure over the better part of two decades, it would be unfathomable to consider what would’ve happened otherwise and in 2022, he sought out a similar form of community outreach when he partnered with the local Deaf West Theater and Coro de Manos Blancas, a choir comprised of the hearing-impaired from Venezuela, to perform “Fidelio,” the lone opera he composed before he went deaf himself.
The historical nature of the event wasn’t lost on María Valverde, Dudamel’s partner who could sense from her own experience as an actor in such films as Melanie Laurent’s “Galveston” and Claudia Llosa’s “Fever Dream” that she wouldn’t only be witnessing a transformation for the form itself when the production could connect with both hearing and deaf audiences with innovative staging that artfully incorporated sign language, but for those performing in it as they were able to express themselves before such a large audience. Valverde’s decision to assemble a crew to capture the lead-up to the event leads to a film as energizing as the the performance itself as she comes to follow three actors who try out for leading roles in “Fidelio” from Coro de Manos Blancas, showing that their poise on stage has been hard-earned from the lives they’ve lived outside of it.
In the six months leading up to the show in Los Angeles, “El Canto de Las Manos” tracks Jennifer, Gabriel and Jose as they confront any doubts about themselves being able to pull off their roles in “Fidelio” after an already intense audition process. Valverde spends time with them at home to see how much they’ve already had to overcome and continue to deal with when Jennifer struggles to find work because of her condition to keep a roof over her head while Gabriel is about to welcome a new child into the world with his partner, whose parents forbid her from sharing an apartment when the thought of them being a deaf couple living independently is inconceivable. Yet as they begin to inhabit another person for their parts in “Fidelio,” they can be seen finding strength within themselves. When Valverde has preserved this experience of “Fidelio” for all audiences, “El Canto de Las Manos” ends up opening doors of all types, bound to turn the theaters it plays in into a night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and as it starts rolling out theatrically, the filmmaker shared what led to the urge to pick up a camera, making the film so accessible to all and honoring her subjects’ desire to share their stories themselves.
How did this come about?
Everything started when I heard about Gustavo’s idea of making “Fidelio” with deaf actors and musicians back in 2018. He started to dream about celebrating Beethoven through his deafness and I realized that this story should be a tool in making this production of “Fidelio” with deaf actors and singers happen. When the pandemic arrived, everything stopped and then [Gustavo] returned to make the project with the L.A. Phil and Deaf West Theatre. so I started filming the process of how they were making “Fidelio” with the Coro de Manos Blancas. When I was meeting the deaf singers from Coro de Manos Blancas, I realized that the story was in them — there were so many important stories to tell.
When they were doing the the opera in Los Angeles, I started interviewing the choir and I chose [to follow] Jennifer, Gabriel and Jose, not knowing at all how their stories would end up, because I realized how independent they were, although the society doesn’t let them be independent. Normally when people have disabilities, [society] infantilizes them, but I realized how independent these three were and I said, “We have to go to Venezuela to start filming their lives.” And that’s when Gustavo realized that he wanted to make the opera with them being the main characters. So that’s how it started [from] a personal need of Gustavo’s [to create this version of “Fidelio”] and the idea of [preserving] forever in a film how this old work was [revived].
When it’s your first documentary and you also have to be conscious of your subjects, what was it like to get the right crew to come with you on this adventure?
It was important to find the right people who really believed in the project, people with a very open mind and very open hearts because traveling to Venezuela wasn’t easy or to go into their families and their experiences. But all the people around the documentary were very sensitive to the importance of being there. We needed to be invisible. We couldn’t modify the realities. We were just the audience, seeing their lives and that’s how we created this very special relationship between the choir and the team of the documentary because it was about the respect we have for each other. It took us some time to get to know each other and also for them to see as people they could really trust, but that was the key because we have the responsibility to their story the way they want it to be told.
It’s a great backstage documentary besides anything else. Was there anything from your own experience that you wanted to express as they were preparing for their parts?
Yeah, it was very beautiful for me to have that because as an actor, all the preparation, the rehearsals and the auditions are very important. But at the end, making “Fidelio” is just an excuse to tell their own stories as deaf people. I wanted to show how hard they work from the very beginning until the end because that’s part of their success. They were the people who really got their parts and they have to show that when they’re doing the final show. But the reality is that I really wanted to see them grow as people and to have their own thoughts and their opinions about themselves and what the deaf people have to say to the hearing world, because we are not seeing that and we have to have [to create that] space in order for them to be seen. What was most important was to see that from them.
It’s quite striking as soon as you see the subtitles to realize how many languages have to be conveyed. What was it like thinking about accessibility in general?
At the end, we [present] people using their own language, which was very important because language deprivation has always been a big thing for the deaf community. [It was important to have them] claim their own language, as I was claiming for Gustavo’s own language, which is Spanish, to really show who they are. Some deaf people have been [dubbed] in order to to fit in to the hearing world and for me it was very important for them to show that they use sign language. That’s the way they see themselves and how that represents them.
The sound design is quite evocative as well. Was that an interesting part of the process?
Yeah, I always had that in mind. I really wanted [the cast to] be themselves and for the hearing people have that experience and at the very beginning, I thought I would have used [sound design more subjectively] with the three characters. but I thought it was much important to understand in very important moments in the movie. For example, the birth of your first son or daughter, [silence] is how a deaf person would have lived that experience. It was a very sensitive moment for the hearing people to understand that most important experience in your life, how it would have been without the sound. And the sound design was very important because of the bubbles that we created with the lack of sound, which is not [complete silence]. There’s always a sound because silence doesn’t exist for deaf people, but we created their own way of hearing that had to be really well-thought out because when we are in Gabriel’s bubble, it is the way he really listened. We work with him [to discover] the way he really listened, like how if he listens more from one ear than the other and we created that [experience] with them in order to really understand.
When this takes on a life of its own was there anything that happened that changed your ideas of what this was?
I didn’t have any expectations, so the story has been a miracle. I wanted to stay with the reality as I was filming and filming their experience, doing the auditions and preparing “Fidelio” made me go through all this journey, and in the editing room, we really found the story because we had 400 hours of filming, which is a lot. But because we were there in Venezuela, we didn’t want to miss anything. In the end, of course, we had to take out a lot, but we wanted to have their own experiences and to let everyone speak for themselves in order to [show how they] each have their own voice.
What’s it been like to share this with audiences?
It’s been very emotional because you can really feel the audience getting the story. I think it’s a very uplifting story, but also makes you question yourself a lot about what are we doing wrong as a hearing people. And the film speaks more to the hearing audience in order to understand the deaf community, but so many deaf people have told me that it really represents their story with dignity, which that makes me feel very proud. That was my first goal and I feel glad that deaf people can see themselves represented with Jennifer, Gabriel, and Jose’s stories. Some deaf people have been inspired to make music themselves, and music has been something forbidden for them or they’re very against music, which I totally understand. But for this community and for this choir, it’s their salvation and their future. That’s been the most inspiring part of all this and why I had the personal need to tell this story.
“El Canto de Las Manos” opens on December 12th in Los Angeles at the Laemmle NoHo 7.