Sound and Fury comments

Clearly this documentary was a very well thought out and planned piece. Aronson was not trying to convince or coax the viewer into siding with one side or the other. The equal focus on families and people representing both sides of the argument helped reinforce that. The storyline reinforces reality by not having a solid conclusive ending as to whether it truly is ethical or unethical to use cochlear implants. The issue has not ended and the viewers are left to make a value judgment for themselves. According to the "Director's Take" on the PBS website, Aronson understood and created this documentary as the "climax of the 250-year-old battle between deaf people who lip read and speak and those who sign." I think it would have added to the tensions between the hearing vs. the deaf world by explaining that deaf people have already struggled with tensions between people who lip read and people who sign.

From a technical standpoint, my initial impression was that the documentary was not very well produced since the footage was not the most aesthetically pleasing I've seen. I haven't had too much experience with documentary so I half expected cinematic qualities from the documentary. I realized walking away after viewing the film that despite its seemingly unimpressive cinematic qualities, it really drove the issue and story home. The director chose to use a dub rather than subtitles in order to keep the documentary consistent and interesting. I think since it was very well executed, this worked in his favor. This is especially the case since most of the films viewers are of the "hearing world". The shots and timing of the cuts were also well executed. When the father was very angry, there was an uncomfortably long shot focused on his facial reactions and gestures. Though a dub was used, the visual track provided reinforcement for the words dubbed in the audio track. When interviewing a deaf person, they chose to record an audio track of the few sounds they made and mix it into the audio voice over track. This helped portray the emotions of the interviewee and also provide authenticity to the vocal dub. The mix of real live footage and interview footage was also carefully planned. I remember a particular scene when the mother siding against cochlear implants felt attacked by her mother-in-law. The scene was immediately followed by an interview where she expressed her feelings to her husband. All in all, its easy to pick out areas where it seems like the piece was unprofessional. When all factors are considered, and the overall effects and message of the documentary are considered, Aronson did a successful job in his attempt to educate people like myself of the realities facing the deaf culture.

Jesse Koay