It seems like common sense, or maybe even parental duty.  If a kid has anything from the sniffles to a heart defect, a good parent would do whatever he/she can to make their child better.  Right?  That’s exactly what I would have said before screening Sound and Fury, a brilliant new documentary from Josh Aronson.  His film is an 18-month look at a family torn apart by both pride and medical technology.  At debate is a tiny device that can allow deaf children to hear if it's implanted at an early age.

Peter and Nina Artinian are a married deaf couple and, as the film opens, the Glen Cove, Long Island residents have just had their third baby.  Like each of their previous two children, Heather was born without the ability to hear.  Peter doesn’t try to hide his feelings about Heather’s condition.  In fact, he’s downright thrilled that his new daughter is deaf.  If a pill existed to cure deafness, Peter wouldn’t give it to any of his kids because he’s proud of his close-knit community and his heritage (both parents are deaf).

Meanwhile, Peter’s brother Chris has just had twins – one deaf and one hearing.  Unlike Peter and Nina, Chris and his wife Marie (a hearing couple) are completely devastated by the news.  Luckily, technology has advanced to the point where doctors can implant a cochlear device in deaf children, giving them the ability to hear.  The choice is a no-brainer for Chris and Marie – their child will get the cochlear implant as soon as possible.  The film shows the procedure, as well as the events leading up to and following the surgery.

The tiny implant divides the Artinian family, with both sets of grandparents staunchly opposed to the device.  They’re afraid it will change the child’s identity and inadvertently teach the child that it’s a horrible thing to be deaf, in addition to potentially dividing the deaf community and leading to the extinction of ASL (American Sign Language).  Things become even more complicated when little Heather announces that she wants the implant, too.  Who should make the decision – Heather or her parents?

A great deal of Fury is devoted to Peter and Nina’s research into the cochlear implants.  They visit a school with a classroom full of children who have been fitted with the apparatus, and they watch slack-jawed as the kids talk and sing.  They visit different families (both deaf and hearing) with children that have received the implant. When Nina begins to seriously consider the cochlear device for her Heather, she is met with great resistance from husband Peter, as well as his parents, who call her “a bad daughter” and “an abusive parent.”

Needless to say, the issue of cochlear implants is a lot more complicated than you might think.  Aronson doesn’t take sides in the debate and, as a result, his film is very well balanced, and very emotional as well.  I’m not sure that I’ve seen a documentary this passionate that wasn’t completely one-sided.  It’s interesting to watch hearing people inadvertently put deaf people down when they try to make their case for the implants.  It’s also nice to see a film about people from Long Island that doesn’t feature big hair and annoying accents.

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