Josselyn directs first film of Jesus’ life story entirely in ASL

Joseph Josselyn, a director and producer with the organization Deaf Missions, helped to recently make history.
Josselyn produced and directed “JESUS: A Deaf Missions Film,” which is the first film ever made that tells the life and teachings of Jesus Christ entirely through American Sign Language, or ASL. Josselyn was born and raised in Massachusetts, and his wife, Nicole, was born in California. Josselyn said it was a bit of a winding road that brought him and his wife to Henderson.
“I went to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. It’s the first all-deaf university for liberal arts. I studied television and film for my degree. When I graduated I moved to California in San Diego to work for a company there and I met Nicole there. The organization Deaf Missions is based in Council Bluffs and they offered me a job as their video producer,” Josselyn said. “We made the decision to move and settled in the Henderson area and we’ve been there ever since. Also, leadership at Deaf Missions just asked me to step into a role as being the CEO of the organization.”
Josselyn said as a child, he was always fascinated with movies like “Star Wars” and “E.T.,” but was even more interested in what happened behind the scenes
“I was really fascinated in how the whole process from the idea to the completed film came to be. I used to make my own movies borrowing my dad’s 8mm film camera, and later I would borrow my aunt’s video camcorder. I did films with my brothers and cousins and stuff. We would dress up and create all sorts of stuff. So that’s when I started my fascination with it,” commented Josselyn. “When I went to Gallaudet I planned to become an actor. I saw that they offered a major in television production, and I decided to try it. Looking at the studio work, I really found that I really enjoyed working on the whole project behind the scenes rather than performing as an actor.”
Josselyn said he took his talents to Deaf Missions 18 years ago, saying it’s an amazing and humbling opportunity to be able to serve God in a unique way by using his video resources and the things that he loves to do already to allow for the gospel to reach the deaf for Jesus Christ.
As for “JESUS: A Deaf Missions Film,” Josselyn said the idea for a film documenting Jesus entirely in ASL was not a new one, and it took some time to bring to fruition.
“I watched “Jesus of Nazareth” when I was little. Even as a child, I thought it would be cool if they had a sign language version of the Jesus film. I met another producer who actually was co-producer for this film, and he had that same vision. A Jesus film in sign language. That was how it started.”
Josselyn said he pursued the idea of the film for three important reasons.
“If a deaf person watches a hearing movie, there’s talking and we miss a lot because we can’t hear. There are captions, yes, but it’s not the same experience. You can’t be looking at the action and reading at the same time. You’re going up and down. You feel a disconnect. In this film, Jesus acts and signs and you can watch him and his emotions all at the same time. That’s the heart language of deaf people is sign language. The second reason is culture. For a hearing movie, of course it’s made for a hearing audience, and they edit with sound and audio in mind. With the Jesus film, we made it for a deaf audience, and how we filmed it was with the deaf in mind, to make sure that the signs are visible and aesthetically pleasing, from a deaf perspective, in order to communicate in their heart language, in their culture,” advised Josselyn. “The third and final reason is identity. This was produced by the deaf. We had a deaf cast and crew, and they own the film too. That’s their identity, being deaf, and that’s really important to them. All the key roles in making this film, the main cast, the main actors, and the crew, are all deaf.”
Josselyn added that making a deaf production is a little different, especially in the way he had to get the performers to cut during and after scenes.
“Sometimes, we wave hands instead of shouting “cut” on a film set. Or, sometimes I’d have my hat, and I would throw it to stop it. I usually did it when I was excited, or when I was happy with the shot. Sometimes we would turn the lights on and off to get some attention. The last method was with a duffel bag. And we would throw it, especially if there’s a huge crowd with a lot of extras. We would throw it and land right in the middle of the crowd. For example, when they were shouting, ‘crucify him!’ in the trial, we threw it because it was easier for them to see that. So that’s just something fun and extra different for a deaf production compared to a hearing one,” Josselyn stated.
Josselyn said one of the biggest hurdles he tackled was how to present Jesus’ dialogue on the cross after being crucified.
“The question became, ‘How are we going to do sign language when Jesus was on the cross?’ He said a few things while he was on the cross. And to see how we solve that problem, you’ll have to watch it,” Josselyn said.
According to Josselyn, it took three years for the film to go through pre-production to completion, and was filmed all over the United States and overseas.
“Some of it was filmed in Iowa, we do have a studio at Deaf Missions, and in Texas, there’s a Bible set there that we rented, called Capernaum Studios. And then we filmed in several locations in California, including downtown Los Angeles, their city hall, we use that area for outside of the temple. If you look up, it’s skyscrapers, but if you look down, it’s the temple scene. We filmed in Utah for the Sea of Galilee scenes, in one of their lakes, as well as in Louisiana for the walking on water scenes. There’s a big pool that they have. Finally, we went to Bulgaria. They have a really good Roman set there. It’s used for many movies, including  “300: Rise of an Empire.”  We had a $4.8 million budget for this film. We had a big vision, we wanted to make sure it looked good, and that it was higher quality. We couldn’t have done that with a smaller budget. To try to film it all in Israel, that would have been pretty complicated, but we wanted to make it as authentic as possible, so we had to scout all those locations.”
The film’s initial release was in June of 2024 in 327 major theaters like AMC and Regal. Josselyn said the film had a very positive response, and it was pretty much filled up wherever it was shown. He was also pleased that the film was shown over the Easter weekend at the Red Oak Grand Theater, right in the area where he lives. Josselyn said on a personal level, making the film was very rewarding, but he couldn’t have done it alone.
“There were more 300 people involved for the cast and crew for this film. This movie could not have happened without them. And this movie could not have happened without the supporters and the donors and a lot of volunteer hours that were put into this film. It was very exciting when it was released, I admit I was very nervous. Was it going to be good? Was it going to be too long? A lot of questions. But after the showings, people came out weeping and I was just touched with the comments. They finally understood about Jesus, could understand his teachings in our own language. I felt very, very humbled to be part of this project that God had done.”
While the dialogue is all in ASL, Josselyn said the movie can be viewed and enjoyed by all audiences.
“There is music, really amazing music. The person who composed the music, she could hear at one time, and then she experienced hearing loss. So she had some musical experience and knowledge of sound before. The film also has English subtitles. One person who saw the film and could hear told me that he could actually see more of Jesus in a different way that he’d never seen before in a hearing film. Because of how the film was presented, from her perspective, she saw something new, “Josselyn explained. “Also it’s good for hearing people to experience deaf culture. It’s kind of like watching a foreign film. You watch it, and then you can experience a different culture.”
Currently, Josselyn said they’re working on distributing the film internationally, but it will take some work, as some elements of ASL are included in the sign language of other countries, but not all. 
“We’re working on picture-in-picture, and having a sign language interpreter there. We’re going to start the release that way, but with AI technology, I’m hoping we can use that to changing the signs in the current film into their sign language, so they don’t have to look at the little picture, they can actually just watch the film in their language. That’s kind of what we’re focusing on right now. We do have other ideas for the future projects, more relevant to today’s culture, more modern. I’m hoping to make something that would be applicable to today, some sort of spiritual Christian message. You’ve seen movies like “Fireproof,” or “Courageous,” those kind of films. I’d love to do something like that for the deaf,” Josselyn commented.
 To learn more about Deaf Missions, or Josselyn’s film, go to the main website for Deaf Missions, deafmissions.com. The movie itself has the website jesusdeaffilm.com, which is hosting the film, allowing for ordering through Amazon, on DVD, or obtaining a license for public showing.