they are required for ASL literature to take form. If the Deaf community gathers in small groups, it is very rarely a productive means of creating and perpetuating ASL literature. One example of a successful gathering of the Deaf community was the Deaf Way: An International Festival and Conference on the Language, Culture, and History of Deaf People. It was hosted by Gallaudet University from 9–14 July 1989, included more than 500 presentations, workshops, artistic events and performances, and had over 5,000 attendees from a total of 76 countries, including the United States. Gatherings such as these allow for the proliferation of ASL literature and the "oral" dissemination of new works. Members of the Deaf community often leave the festival and share the new works with their own friends and family, and each shared iteration of a work may differ slightly from the original, which results in multiple versions of stories being passed through the community. It is common for Deaf community members to gather socially in their everyday lives, outside of large festival gatherings, sharing and dispersing their own personal narrative stories and traditional or popular ASL stories. Influence of technology on ASL literature Since the first recordings of ASL literature by NAD in the early twentieth century, recordings of ASL literature on film have affected the storytelling tradition. One of the most striking ways that film has changed ASL literature is by making it static. When works of literature are passed orally from person to person, they may change slightly with each performance, but when they are recorded on film, they are frozen in their original form. This has had the effect of distancing performers from audiences, so there is a loss of dynamic interaction between the two. On the other hand, this development allows an audience to view a work of ASL literature long after it has been performed, so it is less likely to be lost to history. Veditz, who led the NAD film project from 1913 to 1920, was in part motivated by his desire to be able to view the signs of Deaf community members who had died, and to preserve ASL in its early 20th century form. Film technology has increased the reach of ASL literature to a much wider audience. Anyone can watch works of ASL at their convenience, regardless of geographic location. Film has influenced ASL literature in other ways as