According to lostandsound.org/film, “1 in 7 of us will experience some kind of deafness in our lifetime. So what would happen to the music you love, if your hearing was lost?” I just saw this documentary by Lindsey Dryden, shown at the Lincoln Center Film Society.
Dryden is a British writer, producer, and director. She loves music, and has been deaf in one ear since she was 3 years old – as an adult, she learned it was due to Meniere’s disease. Her film highlights the scientific research involving the brain and human response to music, while following the experiences of three people .
Nick is a prominent music critic in the UK who recently lost hearing in one hear (as an adult) and is not aided; Emily is a university dance student who has worn hearing aids for 19 of her 20 years, a cochlear implant for 3 years. With no formal speech therapy, she has very “deaf speech” but with a British accent. Her cochlear implant amplifies the rhythm in the music she listens to and she dances quite beautifully; Holly is a 10 year old child of musicians, also studying music herself, who lost her hearing at 14 months after a fight with meningitis. She was aided once she regained her health, and received a cochlear implant about 6 months later. She has auditory memory, having been able to hear for more than a year before her illness – she had previously been speaking also, and once she was aided, she received intensive speech therapy. The music provided a good deal of auditory training for her as well.
Some highlights for me in Lost & Sound: there were clips of Holly in music therapy at the Nordoff Robbins Centre in London; medical professionals and university lecturers spoke of the power of music and the related brain responses; none of the three highlighted people in the film considered the deafness to be a disability. There were some struggles (especially regarding Nick’s pain – both physically and emotionally in dealing with this loss – as well as for Holly’s and Emily’s parents), but no handicaps getting in the way of life’s opportunities, successes, joys. I also was happy to watch the interpreter during the Q & A after the screening.
What was missing for me: a 4th perspective incorporating someone Deaf (capital D), who was born deaf and uses sign language; most likely this would be someone who doesn’t miss music due to never having experienced its sound, only its vibrations – and perhaps having pleasant experiences with music in his or her own way. ASL (or BSL, since it was in the UK) was sorely missing – in my opinion – in a film about deafness. Dryden herself mentioned during the Q & A that followed the screening that she did not intend to leave out sign language and that the film could have been enhanced with such a perspective.
Of course the Q & A brought up some of the controversies around cochlear implants… and there’s a lot of controversy. You can get some details about the impants here: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/coch.aspx. Some people find them to be helpful in distinguishing between speech, music, and other sounds. Some people find them to be more distracting, causing sounds to become irritating or even painful. Not everyone who is deaf is a candidate for a cochlear implant, so the most important thing is to do plenty of research and become educated in order to make an informed decision for yourself or your young child.
Going back to the film… visually, it is stunning. It has subtitles that don’t become annoying, they are just part of the scenery. The transitions are smooth with creative scientific images and a good mix of personal stories alongside the research. The soundtrack is appealing and supportive, not overbearing. This film was well worth watching.