The film centers on the experience of Aneta Brodski, a deaf teenager living in Queens, New York, who becomes immersed in the dynamic and three-dimensional form of American Sign Language poetry.

Deaf Jam premiered on PBS's Independent Lens program,[1] and was awarded the 2012 Japan Prize for the Best Work of the Youth Category.

Aneta Brodski is first exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) poetry through an after-school program at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens.

She is dedicated to the study ASL poetry, and by the end of the first year, has begun to master the three-dimensional form and cultivate a strong poetic voice.

She competes for a spot on the Urban Word slam team, an unprecedented move for a member of the Deaf community.