'Moonlight Sonata' Trailer: Doc Explores Both 'Sound and Silence' (Video)
Irene Taylor Brodsky’s personal documentary on deafness in her family will open in theaters Sept. 13 from Abramorama
After debuting at Sundance and making its way through the festival circuit, HBO Documentary Films’ “Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements” will get a theatrical release in September. The film will start playing in New York Sept. 13 and Los Angeles Sept. 20 through distribution company Abramorama.
“Moonlight Sonata” will also make its broadcast debut on HBO in December 2019.
Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky (“Beware the Slenderman”), the documentary focuses on Brodsky’s son growing up as his deaf grandfather grows old. Her son was born with the ability to hear but lost it at 4 years old. He gets cochlear implants and starts playing piano, and at 11 years old, he is set on learning Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” — the piece Beethoven wrote as he lost his hearing.
“I witnessed three lives over three centuries all converging to find their own voice. My film is an ode to both sound and to silence, and what we have all gained not in spite of the deaf experience, but because of it,” Brodsky said in a statement.
The filmmaker, who has two deaf parents but is able to hear, previously covered deafness in her personal documentary “Hear and Now,” which won a Peabody and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 2007.
For the record: A previous version of this story had the title of the film incorrectly.
Oscar 2018: Documentary Filmmaker Portraits, From Agnes Varda to Jim Carrey (Exclusive Photos)
Eight nonfiction filmmakers pose for the Race Begins issue of TheWrap Oscar Magazine.
JR and Agnes Varda, “Faces Places”
(Photographed by Shayan Asgharnia for TheWrap) “We have used the phrase ‘friendship at first sight,’ and that’s really what happened. We met and said, ‘We have to do something together. What could we do? It should be images and sound, like cinema.” –Varda
Colin Hanks, “Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis”
(Photographed by Samantha Annis for TheWrap) “Initially, I resisted the idea. I don’t necessarily like to stick a camera in my friends’ faces after the toughest time in their lives, a terrorist attack on the other side of the world. But we realized there was an opportunity to document this and help everybody move on.”
Ceyda Torun, “Kedi”
(Photographed by Corina Marie for TheWrap) “We went to Istanbul to do a straightforward nature documentary by filming cats and taking to people. But we realized that what people had to say about cats was profound and poetic, and that’s the fastest way to strike up intimate conversations with strangers.”
Jim Carrey, “Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond-Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Directed by Chris Smith)
(Photographed by Corina Marie for TheWrap) “It’s behind the scenes like has never been seen behind the scenes. And also, the character being played [in “Man in the Moon”] took over the movie and played it from the apparent grave. We all had the experience of Andy [Kaufman] being back.”
John Ridley, “Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992”
(Photographed by Matt Sayles for TheWrap) “Los Angeles is not Ferguson, not Baltimore. These events deserve singular examination. My desire is to use complicated storytelling to upend the audience expectations, so they walk away and think, ‘What do I feel about what I thought I knew?”
Brett Morgen, “Jane”
(Photographed by Megan Mack for TheWrap) “I think that Jane Goodall is a story for our time, and yet one that transcends our time. It’s not just the story of a scientist, but the story of a woman having to overcome the structural opposition of her time to fulfill and achieve her dreams.”
Evgeny Afineefsky, “Cries from Syria”
(Photographed by Jana Cruder for TheWrap) “Syrian people were bringing me footage because they knew I had a voice and could tell their story to the world. They’re fighting for freedom of speech, fighting for democracy, for all these human rights that we’ve never had.”
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, “One of Us”
(Photographed by Corina Marie for TheWrap) “We followed the journey of a few Hassidic Jews who were exploring the world outside their very cloistered, insular community — and what’s interesting is that there’s a tenderness and homesickness for what they are leaving behind, because it cannot be replaced by secular American life.” — Grady
TheWrap Oscar Magazine: Eight nonfiction filmmakers pose for the Race Begins issue
Eight nonfiction filmmakers pose for the Race Begins issue of TheWrap Oscar Magazine.
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