Deafula, The First Feature Film Performed Completely In American Sign Language, Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Screenings October 4 & 5 At The Hollywood Theatre - 09/23/25
Press & Media Assets:
Access the Deafula theatrical trailer and stills from the film here.
To schedule a press interview with producer Gary Holstrom ahead of the screening, please contact Matthew Cowan at matthew.cowan@ohs.org.
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Portland, OR — To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is proud to present two public screenings of Deafula (Peter Wechsberg, 1975). The first feature film performed completely using American Sign Language (ASL), Deafula was shot in Portland — including scenes at Pittock Mansion — and tells the timeworn story of a man coming to realize he may, in fact, be a vampire.
The film will be screened at 6:30pm at the Hollywood Theatre on both Saturday, October 4, and Sunday, October 5. The Saturday program will include live ASL interpretation and a Q&A with producer Gary Holstrom moderated by OHS Moving Image Archivist Matthew Cowan. Tickets are available at hollywoodtheatre.org; general admission is $12 and $10 for students, seniors, and children.
The plot includes a magical ring, a handless servant named Zork, and a dramatic showdown with Dracula. The film was produced using a mix of both hearing and Deaf actors, many who are local to the area. Hearing audience members are not excluded as there is a soundtrack with a translation of the dialogue and a music track.
At the time of its release, the Oregon Journal called the film “more than a mere curiosity. At its best it is an education for the hearing in a new way of perceiving reality” and the LA Times noted that “Deafula is an admirable achievement which speaks with sad laughter.”
The Oregon Historical Society’s Moving Images collection is one of the largest film and video collections in the Pacific Northwest and works to promote and preserve the film history of the Pacific Northwest. The collection includes feature films like Deafula as well as home movies, news footage, educational films, community television, artist and experimental works, early silent films, and more. Select moving images, such as news footage of the Mount St. Helen’s eruption and the Florence exploding whale, are available to view online through OHS Digital Collections (digitalcollections.ohs.org). The collection is also accessible to all by visiting OHS’s research library and browsing the library online catalog. For any questions about the collection, please contact Moving Image Archivist Matthew Cowan at matthew.cowan@ohs.org.
About the Oregon Historical Society
For more than 125 years, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of objects, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and complex as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.