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Movie Review: Hear and Now

In this deeply personal memoir, filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky documents her deaf parents’ complex decision to leave their world of silence and undergo a dangerous surgery to get cochlear implants — the only one of its kind that can restore a sense. At the age of 65, Paul and Sally Taylor decided they wanted to hear their first symphonies, hear their children’s’ voices, and talk on the phone. How will this operation transform them, their relationship with each other, and the deaf world they might leave behind? This is a story of two people taking a journey from silence to sound. The question is, what will they make of it, and what might they gain - or lose - forever? (filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky).

On the surface, Hear and Now is the story of a couple in their mid-sixties who decide to try cochlear implants, but there is a lot more to the story. Whatever your views on cochlear implants may be, this film is a cacophony of well-articulated experiences that any member of the disability community can relate to.

Paul and Sally Taylor have been deaf since birth and have led incredible lives. Dr. Paul Taylor is a professor and an engineer, and helped develop the TTY system and promote a national network for its use. One of the best points in the film is when Paul explains the excitement he felt with the invention and promise of the TTY as compared with the implant, “…the TTY helped us communicate; the implant only helped us hear.”

Sally is a heavy metal-loving grandmother and one of the most intriguing and lovable characters captured by film; her experiences drive the movie. The narrator, one of the couple’s three hearing children, explains what it is like to grow up with a parent with a disability. She recalls her mother singing to her as a child, and the moment at which her mother realized that the child understood that her mother was different. She stopped singing.

As the surgery draws nearer, Sally becomes visibly upset and remains so months after the operation. She and Paul find that their new sense only pushes them further apart. The film explores the first-hand experiences of two people with deep emotional connections to their disability and to each other. This movie is excellent because it walks the delicate line between the perceived cure and the very real people it impacts. Rejection of the Medical Model is a staple of Independent Living. This is often one of the most difficult ideas for people without disabilities to really grasp. The film does not offer an answer, but certainly serves to highlight the inherent tension. The Taylors appeared to be eager for the perceived cure, but in the end they were just eager to experience life together, to have an adventure, and to communicate. They realize they had those things all along. Four stars to the couple for sharing their story!

Compiled by the staff of NCIL

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