Lost and Sound

Like the filmmaker herself, the hearing-impaired Britons in Lindsey Dryden's artful documentary have found ways to integrate music into their lives. Along with experts from the worlds of music and neuroscience—who testify to the benefits of sound on the human psyche—the subjects here share their experiences. Nick, an arts reviewer, lost hearing in one ear due to an undiagnosed illness; he can still hear music, but not in the same way (he describes it as “flat”), partly due to tinnitus. To the musically-inclined parents of 12-year-old Holly, "music is a fundamental part of our lives." At the age of 14 months, she lost her hearing to meningitis, after which she shut down and stopped communicating. With the aid of cochlear implants, Holly now studies piano, violin, and ballet (an audiologist explains that while Holly can hear rhythm normally, pitch and timbre present more of a challenge). Emily, who was born deaf, attends a prestigious collegiate dance program; she has used hearing aids for 19 years and cochlear implants for three. Both Holly and Emily have benefited from expensive surgeries and extensive training. Interstitial segments employ fuzzy sound and abstract imagery to duplicate the way these individuals perceive music, i.e. as if it were being heard underwater. According to University of Edinburgh professor Nigel Osborne, flawless hearing is a myth. He notes that, "We all have our own slightly distorted picture of sound. And therefore we all reconstruct it to be perfect in our own way." Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)