Hear and Now, a personal memoir, written, directed and produced by filmmaker, Irene Taylor Brodsky, who documents her born-deaf parents through their decision to undergo cochlear implants at age 65, to bring sound into their lives.

A Sundance winner from 2007, HBO premiered this film on TV last night.

Brodsky uses home movies to bring her parents to us. From her opening narration we are engaged as she moves back and forth between their present and past lives.
Both 65, Sally and Paul Taylor have lived positive and productive lives. Meeting as children at a revolutionary school for the deaf, they reunite as young adults after college, fall in love, marry and become parents and grandparents.

Despite being deaf, Paul becomes an engineer and is responsible for helping to develop the TTY machine that is now a widely used telecommunication device for the hearing-impaired. Sally becomes a teacher and lends her excellent lip-reading skills to law enforcement investigations. The two raise three hearing children and all three  have mixed feelings about their parents’ decision to have the surgery.

As a naive hearing person, I cheered their decision, anxious to see how sound would bring them to their dreams for a fuller life, to hear the world as they walked their property, or interacted with their family. Sally had found her own way to music, through the vibrations, I wondered what it would be like for her to hear it fully.

Their journey into sound is traumatic and causes a first-time separation between them. Paul has an easier time in the first months, Sally is more impatient and suffers a breakdown. As we move through that first year with sound, we understand their mixed feelings. The audiologist describes their struggle simply, “you have old brains.”

A powerful movie for me, a learning experience, created with love and talent.

I hope I’ve written enough to convince you to check your tv listings for the next showing of HEAR AND NOW or include it on a Net Flicks list.

Bravo Irene, a perfect movie to share on Mother’s Day.