Irene Taylor Brodsky is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker. Her first feature film, “Hear and Now,” won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 2007 as well as a Peabody. Her most recent feature documentary, “Beware the Slenderman,” was nominated for an Emmy, received two Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Best Director and Best Documentary, and premiered on HBO. “Open Your Eyes,” “One Last Hug: Three Days at Grief Camp,” and “Saving Pelican 895” are among her other credits.
“Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements” is an HBO film and will premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 27.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
ITB: This film is very personal. It’s about my deaf son growing up, my deaf father growing old, and Beethoven as he wrote his famous “Moonlight Sonata” while going deaf. It’s a coming of age story about three people across three centuries discovering their true voices.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
ITB: My deaf son was obsessed with the “Moonlight Sonata” and started learning it on his own without his teacher’s permission. I was so smitten by the melody and mood of the piece that I looked it up. I soon fell down the rabbit hole, reading Beethoven’s handwritten letters from his early career as an artist going deaf. Emerging from a deep depression in 1801, he wrote the “Moonlight Sonata.: His story, and his deafness, took my breath away. It made me want to follow my son’s journey as he painstakingly learned each note.
As we continued to film, my deaf father endured great loss. Soon I had three deaf characters, all with their own story of loss and discovery as a result of their deafness.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
ITB: Love, art, and sound. In any order.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
ITB: Being a mom, a daughter, and a director – in most instances, all at once. Family life was spilling into our film every day, and eventually we just had to embrace it.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
ITB: My partners at HBO Documentary Films were there with me from the beginning. They gave me a development deal 10 years ago to document my son’s early childhood when I first discovered he was going deaf. Then when he started getting serious about piano and wanted to learn Beethoven, we began our endeavor to produce “Moonlight Sonata.”
In addition to HBO’s support, I applied to the Sundance Catalyst Forum and was invited to present the film to their funding partners.
Ultimately, I made the film with a combination of licensing fees, investment, and generous donations.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
ITB: My deaf parents are my greatest inspiration. They were darkroom photographers, amateur filmmakers, and archivists. In spite of their deafness, or maybe because of it, they were great communicators. They worked very hard both to understand and be understood. They always wanted to communicate, and I think I got that from them.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
ITB: Best advice: Story is king. I was once afraid to show my first feature film, “Hear and Now,” to film critic Kenneth Turan because it didn’t have a fancy style or high production value. After he watched it, he told me that all he noticed and remembered was the story.
I honestly can’t remember the worst advice. It’s like the pain of childbirth – you willfully forget it.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
ITB: I work with so many women creators, directors, and leaders, and I probably speak to them as artists first, women second. We are all on our own path and need to have the guts to take on the stories and films that will refine our voice and our style.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
ITB: That’s a tough one, but I do remember one seismic shift in my consciousness. I was a huge fan of Mira Nair’s films in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and it wasn’t until I spent my 20s living in South Asia that I realized she was a woman! I remember doing a double take and thinking how unusual that was.
