Children of a Lesser God

Before we started watching children of a lesser god, we talked about how the sound designers were telling the story strictly from a hearing persons point of view because they never exploited the possibility of having complete silence. While this is true from in a literal sense, I do believe they did show what it might be like to be deaf in a different sense. I am talking about in particular the scene where James goes to an (almost) all deaf party with Sara. This scene was unnerving to me because of how quiet it was and how different that is from any party I've ever been to. Sure there were plates rattling together as they were set in the sink and beer fizzing after recently being opened, but it still seemed awkwardly silent for a hearing person. Having a scene where silence underscores people moving their mouths would have been trivial and more likely represented the experience of being behind glass, or wearing headphones while someone is talking, but this scene reverses the poles and makes the hearing person (James) the odd one out. Forcing him to watch hand gestures fly from every direction as he stands in silence, just like everyone else.