SOUND AND FURY

Year: 2000
USA: Artistic License Films
Cast: Heather Artinian, Peter Artinian, Nita Artinian
Director: Josh Aronson
USA: 80 mins
USA Release Date: 25 October 2000 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)


Synopsis

SOUND AND FURY is a documentary that explores one family's ongoing struggle for identity in the seldom seen world of the deaf.

Through the eyes of Heather Artinian, a precocious six year old, we are witness to a family battle over a controversial medical device, the cochlear implant, which would help Heather to hear. Some of her family members celebrate the implant as a long overdue cure for deafness while others fear it will destroy their cherished sign language and way of life.

Heather's two brothers and her parents, Peter and Nita Artinian are all deaf. Peter is an outspoken leader of the anti-implant Deaf community on Long Island, and his world is turned upside down by his daughter's desire to hear. Peter and Nita suspend their longstanding opposition to the implant, but they discover that implanted deaf children are often mainstreamed into the hearing world.

They become afraid that with an implant their daughter would reject American Sign Language and Deaf culture. The family conflict escalates when Peter's hearing brother and his wife learn that their newborn child is deaf and decide to implant him. The battle reaches a heated climax as the hearing members of this extraordinary family fight for Heather's right to be part of the hearing world, while deaf family members fight to preserve her deaf identity.