Sound and Fury
Encyclopedia
Sound and Fury is a documentary film
released in 2000 about two American families with young deaf children and their conflict over whether or not to give their children cochlear implants, surgically implanted devices that may improve their ability to hear but may threaten their deaf identity
. The film was nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
.
with deafness through three generations over a year and a half, focusing on two brothers — Peter Artinian, who is deaf and Chris Artinian, who has proficient hearing
— and their wives and children. Chris and Mari Artinian (who is a Child of Deaf Adult
) find out that one of their newborn twins is deaf. They begin to research the cochlear implant
and its advantages and disadvantages. While this is going on, Heather, Peter and Nita's oldest child, starts asking for an implant as well. The brothers, along with grandparents on both sides, become embroiled in a bitter argument over the importance of deafness, the best form of education for their kids, and the controversy of cochlear implants for young children. For Peter and his wife, Nita, it's their fear of losing a child to the "hearing world", and her losing the importance of Deaf culture, which concerns them. They ultimately decide to raise their children in a deaf-friendly community within the state of Maryland, while Chris and Mari's infant, Peter, is given cochlear implant surgery.
as a primary language, with little spoken language exposure or stimulation until she was implanted at 9, and still, she was depicted here as having succeeded orally.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
released in 2000 about two American families with young deaf children and their conflict over whether or not to give their children cochlear implants, surgically implanted devices that may improve their ability to hear but may threaten their deaf identity
Deaf culture
Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a...
. The film was nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
.
Synopsis
The film follows the Artinian extended familyExtended family
The term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
with deafness through three generations over a year and a half, focusing on two brothers — Peter Artinian, who is deaf and Chris Artinian, who has proficient hearing
Hearing (person)
The term hearing or hearing person, from the perspective of mainstream English-language culture, refers to someone whose sense of hearing is at the medical norm. From this point of view, someone who is not fully hearing has a hearing impairment or is said to be hard of hearing or deaf. The...
— and their wives and children. Chris and Mari Artinian (who is a Child of Deaf Adult
Child of deaf adult
A child of a deaf adult, often known by the acronym "CODA", is a person who was raised by a deaf parent or guardian. Many CODAs identify with both deaf and hearing cultures...
) find out that one of their newborn twins is deaf. They begin to research the cochlear implant
Cochlear implant
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing...
and its advantages and disadvantages. While this is going on, Heather, Peter and Nita's oldest child, starts asking for an implant as well. The brothers, along with grandparents on both sides, become embroiled in a bitter argument over the importance of deafness, the best form of education for their kids, and the controversy of cochlear implants for young children. For Peter and his wife, Nita, it's their fear of losing a child to the "hearing world", and her losing the importance of Deaf culture, which concerns them. They ultimately decide to raise their children in a deaf-friendly community within the state of Maryland, while Chris and Mari's infant, Peter, is given cochlear implant surgery.
6 years later
In the follow-up documentary Sound and Fury: 6 Years later, Heather is now 12 years old, and she, her 2 deaf siblings, her mother and members of her extended deaf family have all opted for the implant device. The article summarizing the documentary's events describes her as having clear speech, living in a 'mainstreamed' world, interacting with hearing people, and earning high grades in school. These are goals lauded by the oralist movement. The girl appears to have achieved success by the oralist movement's definition in spite of living in an environment oralist educators strive to avoid as best as possible: her family is all deaf, she attended deaf schools and interacted primarily in the deaf culture, and had little to no intelligible speech in the first documentary. She was able to possess a deaf heritage, use ASLAmerican Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
as a primary language, with little spoken language exposure or stimulation until she was implanted at 9, and still, she was depicted here as having succeeded orally.