Sound and Fury

Moving, emotionally and morally complex documentary about a family with both hearing and deaf members, including two sets of parents of deaf children. One set of parents are hearing, the other deaf themselves. The fathers are brothers.

The hearing parents want a cochlear implant for their deaf baby, angering and alienating the deaf relatives who see the operation as a threat to deaf culture. The even more complex story is that of the 5 year old deaf daughter of the deaf parents. The little girl wants the implant, and that creates an awful emotional dilemma for the parents who have to question whether denying their daughter the operation is the right thing to do.

There are a few minor annoyances. The families try to act like the camera isn't there, but it clearly is awkwardly affecting their behavior. Also, I wish the film had subtitled the sign language, rather than having less-than-great actors give their own inflection and emotional interpretation to what'™s being said, which may or may not be accurate.

But these are minor problems for a film that tackles a complex issue with intelligence and even-handedness.

I have been involved with the Deaf world for about 20 years and when I saw this film I was deeply moved, but not the way most of the viewers who commented were. I see the Deaf world as a minority and this film, though showing that Deaf Culture is precious to Deaf people, seemed to leave that part out. If we had a pill that would turn African Americans or other racial groups white, would we want them to take it so their lives would be made easier? I don't think so. It is the same with Deaf people. They do not see themselves as handicapped. They can do everything that hearing people can do, except hear. It is we, the hearing community, not the Deaf themselves, that limit them. With the CI, not one mentioned that that boy would be limited in the choices he would be able to make in school, that he would not be able to participate in sports for the most part. That choice was taken away from him. I have seen this before and I have seen how hurt the deaf boy was. So hurt in fact that he stopped using the CI and entered the Deaf world while he was still in high school. But it was too late for him to experience basketball, football, swimming, baseball. He could only sit on the sidelines and watch as his friends, both deaf and hearing, played. As with the deaf girl with the CI in the deaf family, her speech was not that clear, but the deaf father said that her grandmother said it was perfect. How ironic. Do you think the hearing children she played with thought so?

It also did not talk about the dangers of the CI surgery. It is brain surgery and it is seldom that the dangers of infections to the brain and the resulting consequences are spoken of. It didn't talk of the paralysis that sometimes occurs or the fact that it might not work. The surgeon told the parents that their son would hear. He didn't tell them any negatives. Personally, I would not want to have surgery until I could understand all of the ramifications and risks involved.

I felt that this film leaned heavily on the promotion of CI surgery as a cure-all for deafness. It left many issues untouched. The Deaf parents were called abusive by several of the people in the film. I don't see it as abuse. They were willing to allow their child to make the decision at a later date. The girl was learning language, it just wasn't spoken. The CI by it's very nature turns a deaf child away from the culture by emphasizing speech and hearing and de-emphasizing sign language. The hearing mother of the deaf son was making sure that it would be difficult for her son to communicate with her Deaf parents. She is content to take from the Deaf world as an interpreter, but she is also willing to insult it when her own child is born deaf. The film was interesting, but it did not come close to looking at many of the important issues of the Deaf World and CI.

I am currently living with a deaf step sister and her deaf boyfriend. I have heard many times from my step mother that her daughter wanted to have a deaf child. I know that this may sound selfish, but there is reason behind it. She wanted to be able to connect with her child on the same level, the same way a hearing person would not wish to have a deaf child, there is something missing there.

When I saw this movie, I was able to see both sides of the story, it was very touching to me personally. I thought that it was so interesting the way everyone's values were in different places. This is such a good movie and it really portrays the dynamic of living in deaf household.

If you ever thought about how many ways people can be different, you should really watch this movie.

This documentary was excellently done, and completely heartbreaking.

Mostly this was hard for me because my mother, deaf from birth, had a cochlear implant over four years ago, with wildly successful results. She did not have the implant because people were pressuring her to do so, nor did she do it because she did not like herself the way she was, she did it in order to experience sound.

She was warned that it was very unlikely for her to develop speech recognition, and that the most she could hope for were recognition of environmental sounds. She asked me what I thought about it, and I said, "Go for it! It's worth a shot!" To me, and most of my family, the chance to hear music seemed worth it alone. So what she never becomes a "hearing person"- truly that's not the goal anyway. The point is that hearing sound is a tremendous experience most of the hearing world takes for granted, and if you have the opportunity to hear even some of the world of sound, why not take it?

My mother has never really been part of the deaf culture as defined by this film, she learned to lipread and speak excellently and was able to function very successfully without the ability to hear, as many deaf individuals do.

After she got the implant, my mother worked incredibly hard to develop speech recognition, astounding her audiologists. She truly proves that if you are highly motivated you can do it. She was also amazed at the things that made sound, plastic bags crinkling, dry autumn leaves under your feet, and the buzz of street lamps.

My mom would be the first to tell you that it's worth the risk, recovery and work required. Not because you become part of "the hearing world" but because you gain a sense. You can hear a child cry, a dog bark, a bird sing.

Personally, I feel really disgusted with parents of children who are eligible for the surgery and don't go for it. It's not a question of deaf culture or not- it's a question of knowingly depriving a child of the chance to develop their sense of hearing.

I object strongly to the deaf community's feeling that hearing people can't accept them the way they are. That may be some people's thinking, but it's not everyone's. I certainly didn't think that when my mother decided against the implant years ago, then for it four years ago. It was up to her at that point. With children, the chance for developing speech and speech recognition is so great, and so much slimmer if they were to wait- that deciding against it for a child is really taking away an opportunity that is once in a life time.

Is development of speech and the sense of hearing necessary for a child? Hearing people would say yes, many deaf people would say no. Fair enough. I agree that it's not necessary, but rather a luxury? Why not allow a person the opportunity to do it if the technology exists? Sign language and deaf culture will never be extinct, because the cochlear implant is not for every kind of hearing loss. It is also not a cure-all- an implant patient only hears when his or her implant is turned on. They are still deaf.

And in all honesty- does it really matter? If you have the chance to make your child's life easier and fuller by giving him or her the ability to hear sounds that perhaps you as a deaf parent never heard, it is selfish to stop them just because you yourself may never have the opportunity. A hearing child will still be a part of your family, hearing or not.

This film was a more than fair look at both sides of the issue, and produced in me a myriad of emotions and thoughts.

I really enjoy documentaries, especially ones that don't have an axe to grind. Though I have no particular interest in the "deaf culture" (my exposure has been limited to a bunch of deaf folks who are in a dart league at the local sports pub), I was drawn into this documentary.

Like another reviewer noted, I found myself getting a little emotional at the end. In fact, throughout the movie I was emotionally involved with a subject matter I would never thought I would.

I was struck by the elitist nature of a certain element of the deaf community. Many of the deaf people in the film were extremely antagonistic toward anything that would remove deafness or a deaf person from their community. While this is understandable, I found it extremely selfish. Not only were many in complete denial that deafness inhibited their quality of life whatsoever (are we still allowed to use the word handicapped???), some considered it superior to the "hearing world." I noted with irony that many of the deaf family members at the picnic who were so repulsed by the idea of a cocklear implant were wearing glasses; obviously they considered being born with or having deteriorating eyesight something in need of fixing. Their attitude reminded me of other defensive groups such as un(der)educated parents (hey, I did OK, why does my son need to go to college) or racial minorities (oh, you just want to make her "white").

Even without the controversial subject of the cocklear implant this is a great study in generations as it is the old story of parents either wanting their kids (adult kids) wanting them to either be like them or to have it better than they had it.