Liberty alumna spreads Gospel through new film

This summer, history was made as a film sharing the gospel entirely in American Sign Language was released in theaters. “Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film,” utilized a cast of Deaf actors, directors, and producers. In addition, a Liberty University graduate composed the soundtrack of the film. 

Appealing to the Deaf and hard of hearing, the film’s visuals are supported by a moving soundtrack created by Liberty alumna Lee Armbrust. Although she just completed her degree in commercial music: film scoring, Armbrust has been creating music since she was a child. 

According to Armbrust her favorite thing about music is “the intense detail of it.” Armbrust personally understands how the Deaf community experiences music due to the loss of her hearing.    

“(My hearing loss) has made me pay a lot more attention to how music is structured,” Armbrust said. “It’s given me a unique ability to perceive it I suppose. I perceive it in a picture in my mind instead of something I’m physically hearing.” 

Armbrust first learned about the film a few months before she graduated from Liberty and immediately knew that she wanted to be a part of it. Taking a leap of faith, Armbrust reached out to the director, Joseph D. Josselyn, on Facebook and expressed her interest in working on the music for the film.    

“He responded, for some reason,” Armbrust said. 

Two years later, the movie began filming. This time it was the director who reached out to Armbrust first. 

“He contacted me again and said ‘Hey, yeah, you’re going to do the music and everything,’ and I was like “Yes! I did it,’” Armbrust said. “I played the long game for sure.”

It typically requires around two to three months to create the sound design and score for a feature film of almost three hours. Armbrust and her colleague Andrija Lazarevic composed the entire soundscape of “Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film” in just two and a half weeks.

Splitting the 147-minute movie into four sections of about 40 minutes each, Armbrust and her colleague rolled up their sleeves and got to work. 

“We would just sit and stare at the screen and try and figure out if all the music was perfectly aligned with what they were trying to portray,” Armbrust said. “It was anywhere between two hours a day and 15 hours a day.”

While the schedule was hectic, Armbrust described the experience of working on this film as deeply personal and moving. 

“It is the first time I’ve ever seen a film completely in ASL,” she said. “It’s my heart language. … Being able to explain to my colleague Deaf culture and why they did certain things or how some things translate that to me have a deeper emotional translation than English could ever have was really my favorite part.”

What Armbrust experienced while working on the film is something that many other Deaf or hard of hearing individuals also experienced while watching the film in theaters. Many Deaf individuals were able to see the gospel presented entirely in ASL, their primary language, for the first time. 

“The most unreached people group in the United States is the Deaf community,” said Bonni Brennan, director of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at Liberty. 

Although people may associate missions with traveling to distant countries, Brennan said Deaf and hard of hearing individuals need to experience the gospel just as much as hearing people do.

As a child of Deaf parents, Brennan is passionate about supporting the Deaf
community and providing accessibility to deaf or hard of hearing students on campus. 

“The fact that there is a film — first time ever (at) feature length — that is done in sign language … that’s amazing in itself,” Brennan said. “There are people that are deaf that have never seen the gospel.”

Brennan hopes the ASL film will inspire many Deaf or hard of hearing individuals to be saved and share the gospel message with other Deaf communities throughout the country.

“What was done in the Jesus film is unbelievable, and it is like proof that God is on the move for the hearts of everybody, not just all of us that can hear,” Brennan said. “The gospel is bigger than that. The gospel is for everybody, and it being shared that way is so powerful. I can’t wait to see what God does with it.”

Perez is an arts and culture reporter.