AG Bell Brings "The Listening Project" Movie To Charlottesville

Learn more at thelisteningprojectfilm.org The profound impact of technology on the lives and identities of young deaf adults is explored in The Listening Project. Intimate and direct, 14 deaf people tell stories beginning with a childhood wide-eyed about sound, into the growing pains of adolescence and, eventually, their professional lives.

You must find a way to see this film, if you or your child has hearing loss and chooses to hear and speak through the use of technology.

In the Fall of 2018, the Virginia Chapter of AG Bell put on an event to show this film at The University of Virginia. Thanks to the UVA Speech Pathology Department purchasing the movie and sharing it with us, along with donating physical space for us to meet and view it, we gathered around 100 people to watch this amazing documentary together.

Most were families with either a child or adult member who uses hearing aids and/or cochlear implants to listen and speak, but some families who were considering cochlear implants for their kids, as well as professionals (audiologists, speech pathologists, etc.) and teachers of the deaf.

As the mother of a child with both a hearing aid and cochlear implant, it opened my mind in so many ways. From considering all the job options my daughter can have to what intimate relationship challenges may be as she grows up. WOW. Thank you for making this Jane Madell, PhD.

Before seeing the movie, I watched the below panel discussion with several of the documentary participants. It is great, too. Grab a glass of wine and enjoy with your spouse after the kids go down, or turn it on while you fold laundry (that’s when most my movie watching happens anyway) and enjoy seeing into the lives of these interesting humans.

A panel discussion with five of the young adults in the film and Jane Madell PhD, filmmaker and their childhood audiologist, was held immediately after the premiere of The Listening Project at the ACI Alliance CI2018 DC conference. The panelists discuss their experiences navigating their way through school, friendships and slumber parties.