# Sound and Fury (2000)

### reviewed by
Laura Clifford

    SOUND AND FURY
    --------------

    LAURA:

Cochlear implants are bionic devices which feed sound waves to the brain's auditory nerve. When surgically implanted in young deaf children, the results can be amazing - a child deaf since birth can be speaking completely normally within a couple of years. Sound like a no-brainer of a medical solution? Director Josh Aronson's "Sound and Fury" documents the incredibly complex arguments both for and against the device by following just one family on Long Island, New York.

First we meet Peter Artinian, the deaf father of three deaf children. He states 'I'm happy being deaf. It's very peaceful.' Upon the birth of each of his children he was happy to find they were 'just like me' and his wife (their mother) Nina.

His hearing sister Mary and her husband are horrified to find that her family's deafness has been inheritted by their son and are told about cochlear implants. They witness a five year old girl hearing and speaking like a non-handicapped child two and a half years after receiving a cochlear implant and are convinced that this is the way to go. Peter is not only incensed, he's very 'vocal' about it. Then his eldest, Heather, expresses interest in becoming a hearing child as well. Family battle lines are drawn for three generations.

While the advantages may be obvious, the surprise is that there are compelling arguments made against the procedure, not the least of which is the invasiveness of the surgery and device itself (it must be implanted within the skull and is connected to the ear via a rather large plastic piece plugged in behind the ear). The nature of deaf culture is explored as is the relationship between deaf/hearing parents and their deaf/hearing children. The deaf adults even have some good comebacks when pressed on the educational advantages of hearing.

The filmmakers use some ingenuity to showcase the argument. We witness the silence of deaf communication and then see a signed conversation that is dubbed rather than subtitled to illustrate the difference between the two worlds. 'Talking head' interviews begin with Peter Artinian and are intercut with various family members in various groupings out in the real world - gradually, more 'talking head' one-on-ones are added as the arguments and their offshoots begin to take shape. Irony is allowed to speak for itself, such as when Heather says 'I don't want to sign, I want to speak' - in sign. Peter and Mary's deaf father makes some rather arresting observations. Things get really interesting when Peter's wife Nina, begins to sway to the pro-implant side, even considering the procedure for herself.

"Sound and Fury" is a provocative documentary that is sure to make its audience consider things about deafness and handicaps in general that it might not otherwise.

    A

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