Sound and Fury Documentary Summary

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Sound and Fury; The Communication Wars of the Deaf, is a documentary directed by Josh Aronson, with Heather, Peter and Nina Artinian as starring. It is a documentary with the best emotional power in narrative film. Sound and Fury is a story of the Artinians, an extended family with deaf and dump members across three generation. They collectively confront a technological device being implanted on deaf people that can enable them hear, arguing that this will threaten their deaf culture and their language, the American Sign Language.
Heather Artinian, a six year old girl deaf girl, born to deaf parents, Peter and Nina wants an implant so that she can hear and talk to hearing people. Her father, Peter is part of the anti-implant community in Long Island that is against the implant. They argue that deafness is not a disability but an alternative way of being. The other family is comprised of Christ Artinian, Peter’s brother and his beloved wife who fortunately can hear. When Mari conceives a deaf son, they immediately look into having their child undergo a cochlea implant.
Heather and her parents meet with various families in Long Island with children who have undergone the cochlea implant. Consequently, Peter and Nina decide that Heather should not get the implant and agree that when Heather gets older she can decide for herself whether to get the implant or not. This is not a wise decision because when Heather gets older she will not be able to reap much benefits from the cochlea transplant. To Peter and Nina a surgical ear implant to their daughter means a choice between two different worlds their deaf world and an unfamiliar hearing world. Heather wanted to be in both sides and experience both worlds.
Throughout the documentary, Heather’s hearing fate remains in the balance between her parents’ and grandparents’ silent arguments about her future. The cochlea implant issue puts brother against brother (Peter and Christ) and mother against son (Heather’s grandmother and father). Peter and Nina fear losing their child to the “hearing world” and her potential abandonment of the “deaf world”. Heather’s parents decided to move to Maryland where people were aware of the deaf world and forget about the implant while Chris and Mari decided to have a cochlea done on their son Peter.
If I had a deaf child, I would take her to undergo the surgical cochlea transplant. This will enable the child have hearing abilities that will make her live a normal life like most people do. Hearing abilities will enable her have the best form of education and she will not feel isolated in a world full of people with good hearing and speaking abilities.
I agree with both sides – the deaf culture side and the implant side. The deaf culture side fear that after the implant, their children will have hearing abilities and abandon the deaf culture. They also think that getting the cochlea transplant is n...