Past Prize-Winning Programs
The Japan Prize
The program judged to have the highest overall educative value from among all programs entered.
The Minister of Public Management,
Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Prize
(The Best Program in Adult Education Category)
"Sound and Fury"
entered by Public Policy Productions
[Content]
The possibility of restoring hearing in deaf people using cochlear implants is increasing. This documentary program shows two couples who have young deaf children and their struggle with the difficult decision of whether to give their children the implants or to allow them to grow up as they are. Both parents of one child are deaf and take pride in the culture of sign language and their independence from the hearing world, but their five-year-old daughter has taken an interest in the world of sound and wants to have the implant. Her parents feels that she should be allowed to develop her signing communication ability within deaf society and discover her identity as a deaf person. They discover a community where deaf people feel accepted and decide to move there. The other couple chooses the implant for their infant son. The wife was raised by deaf parents and respects the sign language culture, but she and her husband come to the conclusion that having the implant would offer their son the best chance for a successful future. This program shows the complexity of the exchanges of opinion and internal conflicts which the couples underwent as they make their decisions.
[Jury Comments]

"Sound and Fury" meets all the jury's criteria for good educational television. This program provides a rare insight into the world of the hearing impaired. From its specific focus on decisions about the desirability of cochlear implant surgery for two deaf children, it extends to a thought provoking and emotionally charged examination of family, identity, disability, children's rights and the preservation of a minority culture, the culture of deafness. Most of us will experience one of the desirable effects of an educational television program, the progressive re-examination of our own attitudes. The program also reflects the relationship of co-operation, trust and ethical practice between the documentary subjects and the film makers that can serve as a model for makers of educational programs of this nature.