Southern Winds Film Festival 2008

In the United States, more than 20 million people are either deaf or hard-of-hearing.Justin Garrett‚Aos parents discovered that their son was profoundly deaf at age two. With that diagnosis, their idealistic dreams for him shattered. Not long after that, so did their family.As a young adult, Justin's audiologists recommended a cochlear implant. If the surgery went well, it would enable him to hear. An unsuccessful surgery, however, would mean a lifetime of irreversible deafness.In a miraculous turn of events, Justin was then approved for a bilateral (double) cochlear implant ‚Ai the first time in history a man from Oklahoma would undergo such a procedure. On March 13, 2006, this state-of-the-art surgery changed his life forever. Join him on this incredible journey as Justin seeks a new life in the hearing world.Witness the miracle.

In the late 1970s, with the help of expert sperm banker, Steve Broder, Robert Klark Graham secretly set up his Repository for Germinal Choice using an underground bunker in the backyard of his ranch in San Diego. He sought the cleverest sperm he could get his hands on and so asked Nobel Laureates for a donation. It wasn't long before LA Times Journalist Edwin Chen sniffed out the clandestine sperm bank, and on March 2nd 1980, exposed the 73-year-old tycoon's controversial project to the world. Nobel Prize winner and notorious racist William Shockley was also outed as a donor to the bank, and Graham got slammed. Accused of being a Nazi, his other donors left him and his dream was all but destroyed. Yet still the women came flocking.Over its 20 years of operation, Graham's Repository was beset by problems, not least, there was never enough sperm. Graham contacted high achievers personally, seeking donations. Donor Jim Bidlack recounts how, over dinner, Graham invited him back to his hotel room to provide a donation there and then. Much like a date, Jim was worried he might not be able to perform, but having got comfy in the bathroom, he was able to provide a specimen. Nominated for Best Feature Documentary!