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Review by Juli A. Ginn
Billed as a stand-alone follow-up film, "Sound and Fury: 6 Years Later" must be viewed as a sequel to its Academy Award nominated predecessor, "Sound & Fury," produced by Roger Weisberg and directed by Josh Aronson. "Sound and Fury" lays the groundwork to understand the struggle of four families units and two passionately opposed cultures on the subject of cochlear implants (CIs). "Sound and Fury: 6 Years Later" bears witness to the compromise the CI is forging as it grows in use among the Deaf.
In these films, we see two levels of family involvement in the decision to implant a child with a CI: parent and grandparent. We meet the Artinian family-- hearing mom and dad with two sons, Peter who is deaf and married to Nita, also deaf, and Chris, who is hearing and married to hearing wife, Mari. Both Peter and Chris have a deaf child eligible to be implanted with a CI.
Both Peter and Chris investigate the decision in much the same way, visiting professionals in the hearing field, a hearing institute, a county school for the Deaf, and even the same families of CI recipients. Yet they emerge from their investigative efforts with two opposite results. The Peter Artinian family sits stubbornly against CIs as a threat to their Deaf way of life and the Chris Artinian family opts for the CI and what they see as the most compassionate solution for their son. The hearing Artinian grandparents align themselves on the side of CIs and are in constant battle with Peter and Nita's decision. Chris' in-laws, the Mancini family are Deaf and argue strongly against CIs.
An in-depth look at the two cultures, Deaf and hearing, pitted against each other shocks the viewer new to Deaf culture. It's difficult to believe that such prejudice and fear exists between Deaf and hearing worlds. "Sound and Fury," makes it is plain that these are two separate worlds.
Life-long members of Deaf culture say the ability to cross back and forth between the Deaf and hearing cultures is a threat. If all CI wearers are not taught to sign and all deaf people turn to CIs to make them part of the hearing world, then Deaf culture, marked especially by its use of sign language, becomes extinct, so reasons a Deaf group in round-table discussion.
As the Deaf Artinians conduct their CI investigation, they encounter a lack of concern for the preservation and teaching of sign language, as even a fallback, reinforcing their concerns about a cultural breach developing between them and their six-year-old daughter Heather, who wants to be implanted. By the end of "Sound and Fury," this lack of regard for the Deaf culture, expressed most articulately by Peter's own mother, deeply insults him and Nita and they decide against the CI and move to a large Deaf community in Maryland.
Since the release of "Sound and Fury," filmmaker Aronson has often been asked, "What happened to Heather?" This is the question Aronson addresses in the sequel. In "6 Years Later" we see a change of heart and compromise by the Peter Artinian family, who decided not only to implant daughter Heather, but mother Nita too.
As a before and after comparison of a memorable scene in "Sound and Fury,"12-year-old, implanted Heather is baking with Grandma Artinian. Heather's smile is without compare when Grandma brags on Heather's ability to hear and function more efficiently while baking cookies. By the end of this follow-up film, families are reunited and moving toward harmonious living with the best interests of the child at heart.
These two movies in tandem represent the whole of two sides of the CI argument. An essential part of any viewing experience, whether or not one is even interested in the Deaf/hearing cultural conflict or CIs. "Sound and Fury" and "Sound and Fury: 6 Years Later" satisfy documentary cravings while bringing cultural, psychological and personal awareness. |
