Glenn’s Pick – Glenn Webb, Director of Programs – Being a professional sound engineer and an amateur musician, I take my hearing for granted most of the time. And music is a daily part of my reality. So it takes a movie like MOONLIGHT SONATA to challenge my assumed reality, which it does, but in the kindest way. It isn’t the fact that there are people who don’t hear, and for whom music is a vague thing. In fact, that truth was driven home to me at a concert I was mixing when, because of the weather, I found myself sharing shelter with a mother and 6 year old daughter. The mother told me she had spent all of her life savings to pay for cochlear implants for her daughter, born deaf. This little girl was dancing around the platform next to me, clearly enthralled by the music, and I was deeply moved by the story. But what this movie showed me was that deafness, especially in a world full of noise and distraction, can also be a different and beautiful way of being, and in this case a special sharing between grandfather and grandson. This is only one aspect of a profoundly intimate and touching documentary that I highly recommend. I hope it touches you as much as it did me.
