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Show StatesmanSpedal Features Mondav. Aus. 27. 2007 Page 13 Hearing implants changing lives; film documents changes BY ROBIN ABCARIAN Los Angeles Times HOLLYWOOD — In fall 2004, documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky was caught off guard when her 65-year-old parents, both profoundly deaf since birth, announced that they had made a life-altering decision: They both would undergo cochlear implants. In three weeks. "I was like, "Whoa, what are you talking about? I didn't even know you were thinking about it!'" said Brodsky, who lives in Portland, Ore. But the former producer for CBS News' "Sunday Morning" soon got over her shock and realized that a terrific opportunity had landed in her lap. She gathered a crew and made the trek to her parents' home in Rochester, N.Y., where she would film the surgeries, then follow Paul and Sally for a year as their silent world became a sometimes frus- trating cacophony. "They've been daydreaming about sound their whole lives," says Brodsky, who narrates the film. "But what if hearing disappoints us all?" That is the crux of this exhilarating and often heart-wrenching film, which recently played in Los Angeles as part of the International Documentary Association's DocuWeek. It will be shown on HBO, which funded the production, early next year. "Hear and Now" is both a family love story and a suspenseful tale about the perils of trying to fulfill what might be an impossible dream. Thanks in part to her father's quiet dignity and her mother's tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve, Brodsky manages to create an endearing portrait of two people for whom you can't help but root. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, where the film received an audience award for favorite documentary, the hankies were out at every screening, "I kept hearing people blowing their nose," Brodsky said, "and, I kid you not, I was like, ^Manl Are people getting sick already?' And then I really realized they were crying. I could see people wiping their eyes. And they'd come up afterwards to talk and their voices would be cracking. I wasn't quite prepared for that." In an interview over cups of tea at a big house in Deer Valley, Utah, that Brodsky rented for her parents, extended family and a slew of friends during the festival, Brodsky was able to translate her parents' speech, which can be difficult to understand. (The film has subtitles.) The Taylors seemed faintly amused by the emotions inspired by the film. It's just their life, after all, and one they have lived nearly oblivious to the limitations imposed by deafness. In the film, Paul remembers his mother pushing him in his stroller weeping, because, as he puts it, "I would never speak ... I would never have a life." She needn't have worried; he became a college professor and engineer who helped invent a technology that would help deaf people communicate by phone. Sally was the gossip editor of her high school newspaper and became an expert lip reader. Together, the Taylors raised three hearing children for whom parental deafness was a simple fact of life. There are many charming, poetic moments in the film. Sally walks a country road before her surgery, saying, "I don't see anything to hear. Will I hear the birds flying?" Paul muses that the surgery might change him in a profound way: "I could maybe become a more bold person and do stuff I could never dream of." "That," said Brodsky during the interview, "is the one quote in the film that breaks my heart. I felt so sad, because I think the world of him and how can he say that about himself?" The Taylors met as children at the Central Institute for the Deaf, a residential school in St. Louis that taught the thengroundbreaking "oral method," a combination of lip reading and speech. The Taylors seem to have been model students — learning to speak, to "hear" music by [ISee HEAR, page 25 Former astronaut wants ankle monitor removed; victim 'still afraid' ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, accused of attacking a romantic rival, asked a judge Friday to let her remove her electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, saying that it causes abrasions and gets in the way of her military boots laces. She promised to abide by all court orders if the GPS monitoring device is removed, including not having any contact with Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, the woman she is accused of pepper spraying. Shipman also testified, telling the judge that she was still afraid of Nowak. Knowing Nowak has to wear the monitoring device gives her comfort, she said. Nowak, a 44-year-old Navy pilot, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault. Her attorney, Donald Lykkebak, said he planned to ask Circuit Court Judge Marc L. Lubet at the hearing Friday to throw out some of the most damning evidence in the case, including an interview Nowak gave to police and items found during a search of her car. In an interview with detectives, Nowak had said that she Shipman were vying for the affection of the same space shuttle pilot and that she confronted Shipman in an Orlando International Airport parking lot because she wanted to know "where she stands." She is accused of attacking Shipman with pepper spray and trying to jump into her vehicle. Police say Nowak also had a duffel bag with a steel mallet, 4-inch knife and a BB gun. Lykkebak contends police searched Nowak's car without her permission or a warrant. He said in additional court filings that she gave the interview under duress __ after being held for three hours, deprived of sleep and a phone call and unadvised of her constitutional rights. The interview persisted, Lykkebak said, despite Nowak saying "Should I have a lawyer?" three times. Nowak planned to give her first public statement after the hearing, he said. She told the judge she wanted the monitoring bracelet removed because it is bulky and also interferes with her ability to exercise _ a requirement for a Navy officer. It also inhibits her ability to drive and fly on a commercial airplane, she said. WELLS FARGO The Next Stage' Talk with a Wells Fargo Banker and get your PhD in Money-omics, With College Combo®, designed especially for college students, you get: • Free Wells Fargo College Checking® account* • No annual fee Wells Fargo® Check Card - now with Visa® payWave • Free access to Wells Fargo Online® Banking and Free Bill Pay • Free Direct Deposit of paychecks and/or financial aid • Free access to over 6,800 Wells Fargo ATMs Stop by any of our seven Cache Valley Wells Fargo locations and talk with a banker today. Rent 1 Get 1 FREE Ovar20,Q00 titles to choose from! 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