Way too early

SLC

It's another day and as usual I'm back hanging out in the line at the SLC festival box office. Today I took a shorter route and used the building's service entrance (the line forms inside) instead of walking around for five minutes trying to find an unlocked door.

So... about Hear and Now... as I mentioned last night, it's a documentary about a 65-year-old deaf couple who decide to get cochlear implants. The striking thing about this doc is that it's directed by their daughter, Irene Taylor Brodsky. She somehow manages to walk the line between daughter and filmmaker and ultimately produce a piece that really makes you feel like you're going through the experience along with the entire family. Although not the greatest documentary film from an artistic standpoint, the subject matter lends itself quite well to the medium and the journey is pretty emotional. After 65 years of living in a completely silent world, they both now must come to terms with the chaos around them and learn (relearn?) how to understand sounds they've never heard before. One of the more interesting aspects of this learning is the fact that, unlike to rest of us hearing people, the couple featured in the doc need to gain the ability to filter sound to avoid having it overwhelm. I won't speak too much about what actually happens or how things turn out, but suffice it to say their new ability to hear is a profound experience. I'd have to say my favorite moments are the few days after the implants are turned on - both of them go running around like children, repeatedly doing things simply because they make a sound. Sally, the mother/wife, spends long periods of time banging on walls, flipping light switches, closing doors and watching birds. Paul, the father/husband, repeatedly takes his car through the car wash because he likes the sound so much. Although Paul and Sally didn't join Irene for last night's Q&A (she said it was past their bedtime), it was good to hear her talk through the process of making the film and how difficult it was to be objective while cutting. As she put it, "the daughter cut a 130 minute film, the filmmaker cut an 87 minute film."

Also screening before the Hear and Now was a documentary short called In Passing that chronicled the experience of a mostly-blind woman navigating the streets of London on a daily basis. Stylistically unique, I appreciated how the film was crafted both visually and audibly to mimic the woman's experience. Nicely done.