sound and fury 6years later

I'm Josh Aronson

and in 1999 I made a film about the

Artinian family of Long Island,

called Sound and Fury.

That film was about two
brothers in a battle.

One is hearing, and one is deaf,

and they both have deaf children.

The hearing brother, Chris, and his wife,

find out about a new technology, called

the cochlear implant, that can help

their deaf baby to hear.

But the deaf brother, Peter, like many

people in the deaf world, doesn't see

deafness as a handicap.

He likes being deaf.
He likes his deaf world.

So Chris' choice to implant his child

offends Peter, but when his own child,

5-year-old Heather, comes to him

and asks for a cochlear implant,

Peter's world is really shaken.

Sound and Fury is the story of Peter

and his wife, Nita, who go on a painful

search for information about the

cochlear implant and what it means
for their daughter,

and what it would mean for their family.

Peter ends up at war with his own parents,

who want Heather implanted more than anything.

But in the end Peter and his wife choose

the deaf way of life for their daughter,

and ultimately they move the family away,

leaving the Artinian family deeply divided.

From the moment that Sound and Fury

came out, people asked me, "What happened

to Heather? What happened to the family?"

Well, it's now six years later, and I've

gone back to the Artinians to find out.

The first few minutes of this film are

scenes from Sound and Fury, so if you

haven't seen that original film, this will

give you a sense of the characters

and the backstory.

Chris's implanted son is 7 now, and doing

quite well, but they decided not to

participate in this update.

So -- Sound and Fury: Six Years Later

(Nita, via interpreter)
Why do you want a cochlear implant now?

(Heather)
Because I wanna hear everything!

(Nita)
Everything?

(Heather)
I need to hear alarms,

smoke detectors, for fire and what else?

(doctor's voice)
The younger the person who

receives a cochlear implant,

the more likely they are to develop

clear, understandable speech.

Children who are implanted at one year

of age develop language skills that are

very similar to normal hearing kids.

There's always a slight language delay,

which you can't seem to erase, but in a

one-year-old, that language delay

is just a matter of a few months.

The older the child gets, the greater the

gap there is between a normal hearing child

and a child who's profoundly deaf.

(music)

(laughing)

(woman's voice)
Shelby wants to sing to you.

(different voice)
OK, go ahead!

(singing)
♪ Wheels on a bus go 'round and 'round ♪

♪'round and 'round, 'round and 'round ♪

♪ The wheels on a bus go 'round and 'round ♪

♪ All through the town. ♪

(woman) Give it to Heather and let her
read like you read, okay?

Heather, why don't you sign?

The interpreter will speak. If you sign,

then she'll voice for you.

No, I don't wanna sign, I wanna speak!

Sign the story, it's your language!

No!
- You sign, she'll speak.

Just leave her be.

Now come on, I want you to sign
the story, Heather.

I wanna speak.

All right, all right, let her be.

All right!

(sounds)

The idea of this cochlear implant surgery

is so scary. It's so invasive. They drill

through the skull and have to go very

deeply inside. I'm afraid that cochlear

implants are going to create a bunch of

robots. It just doesn't seem right for a

deaf person, because our natural

communication is signing,

and being in the deaf world.

(music)

Ma, I know how you feel about the cochlear

implant, but I don't want the implant for

Heather. That's it!
That's my final decision.

(Nita)
We're a deaf family. Peter and I grew up

deaf. We know what it's like growing up

in a hearing culture. You don't understand

deaf people --

(Marianne)
You only want to accept one way, deaf way.

There are both worlds here! You only want

deaf world for your children. You are

limiting your children.
You are forcing them --

(Peter) Ma --

You are forcing them to live only in a

deaf world. You are not --

(Nita)
That's not true, Marianne.

When we decided not to do the implant,

everything was so messed up.

My mother-in-law was angry, my deaf friends

were angry, I was angry.

And I just said, "That's it!"
I just had to drop it.

That's why we moved to Maryland.

I needed to get out.

i needed to protect myself. We wanted to

be with deaf people who understood us,

who were like us.

(music)

After we moved, I had to stay working

in New York four days a week, and

commuting to see my family on weekends.

I thought we could do this
for at least a year.

My wife said she was happy living with

the three kids in the deaf community

in Maryland. She thought she could be

happy there. It really sounded great.

But I was in New York most of the time, so

it was hard on all of us.

(music)

(children's voices)

(teacher)
Heather, are you ready for speech? Yes? Good.

(girl's voice)
My turn!

(teacher)
Your turn, good!

(animal sound)
Who is that? Who is it?

OK, in a sentence please. Heather, tell me.

(sounds)

(teacher)
One more time, please, please, tell me.

(sounds)

Wonderful! Thank you! Whose turn? I forget.

They were very upset with us. They got

very involved in the deaf community

down there. The children were put into

Maryland School for the Deaf,

and really at that point I backed off,

'cause I really felt like, this is it,

they'll never be back, because they all

seemed so comfortable down there.

I had no idea that, while they were down

there, there were a lot of problems going on.

I was really alone. Alone with three kids.

I felt like a single mom because my husband

had to go back and forth every weekend

pretty much of the year.

By the third year, I started to really

miss everybody back in New York.

My mother-in-law, and the rest of the

family. I really felt my children needed

to see their Grandma and Grandpa.

We were so disconnected.

I was really depressed, and then finally

I had a breakdown. They gave me some

medication that did help me a bit.

You know, I really wanted to stay in

Maryland, but we just couldn't.

I had no help, no family that was close.

Nita missed the family and everything was

just falling apart. Plus our kids missed

the family, my sister's and my brother's

family, so I decided then we had to move

back to New York.

(music)

Nita still wasn't well, so we moved in

with my parents. But then it started all

over again. We argued over the cochlear

implant. My parents were just pushing.

We had a long talk, and I basically said

to him, Look, you've got two roads to go:

one is, if you don't help your children

to do the right thing, I'm not gonna

put up with it. So, if you want to do the

right thing for your children,

then get them implanted. Take care of

your wife and your children properly,

I'll do everything I can to help you,

in every way, so it works.

I don't think he really trusted
the implant.

He wasn't sure it was going to work.

But I think the biggest thing he was

worried about, he was losing his family.

That once his children didn't

communicate the way that he wanted to

communicate, through ASL, and they became

part of this hearing world,
he would lose them.

Tough, very tough on Peter, because this

was totally against everything that he

believed in and he fought for, but I also

believe that during that four-year period,

somehow some lights went off.

When I first heard about this new

technology, I was against it. I didn't

want to know about it, but within a few

years I calmed down and I thought about it,

and realized I had to do what was best

for my kids. That's really why I changed

my mind. I wanted to give them the

opportunity to be happy.

(music)

(speech language therapist)
Is your processor on?

Yeah.

OK, you gonna go Yeahh or Yes?

Yes.

Thank you. OK, you tell me:
(makes various sounds to copy)

- kk, kk

-mmmm
-mmm

-shh
-ff

-oooh
-ooh

-Hello.
-Hello.

-Today's Saturday.
-Today's Saturday.

-OK. Yesterday was Giovanni's party.
-Yesterday was Giovanni's party.

OK, what did you eat?

Pizza. Chips. Hot dog.

-OK. Peet-za.
-Peet-za.

Much better.

OK, what do you like on top of your pizza?

Nothing.

Would you eat a pizza if I put
an anchovy on top?

Absolutely not!
(laughs)

It was like throwing a light switch on.

And she blossomed from the time she heard.

She wanted to live in a hearing world.