Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky has performed a minor miracle with her documentary film Hear and Now. In just 85 minutes, Brodsky presents us with not one, but two incredible movies.

The first is a sensational medical drama. It is the story of a married couple in their mid-60s, deaf from birth, who choose to undergo a radical surgical procedure which, if successful, will give them the ability to hear.

The drama begins in the weeks leading up to the surgery and ends one year after the operations are performed. As a dramatic piece, the film is a tour de force. We see the hopes, the dreams, the victories and the heartbreaks as the two go through thirteen roller-coaster months in their lives.

We witness the doctor visits, the surgery, the recovery and the physical and emotional effects of the operation. Unlike fiction, where we can anticipate a happy ending, as a documentary, we are promised no happy endings, no dramatic turns of events. We are given reality… at least the reality as captured and edited by Brodsky.

But the medical drama is only a small piece of the puzzle provided by Hear and Now. The heart and soul of this movie is the story of the lives of Paul and Sally Taylor, the 65-year-old centerpieces of the film. The Taylors happen to be Brodsky’s parents, and with this film, Brodsky shares with the world one of the greatest love stories ever told.

While the medical story is told in real time, the love story is presented through home movies and remembrances. It takes us all the way back to their first meeting, when they were three-year-old students at the Central Institute for the Deaf. They were separated through their high school years, and then reunite while in college. We see them as they fall in love, marry, develop their professional careers (this subject along could fill a two-hour film) and how they raised their three children.

We are privy to tales both heartbreaking and inspirational… tales of how they faced prejudice, adversity and frustration. They persevere, though. Paul becomes an extremely successful engineer, Sally a gifted teacher.

The old clips and memories can tell us just so much, though. It is the “real time” footage of the two as they go through their mutual cochlear implants that shows the true depth of their love and devotion.

Without giving too much away, there is a moment when Paul tries to console Sally during a particularly difficult phase of her recovery. As she sobs, Paul gently, tenderly scratches her back. It is a scene with more love and more pure intimacy than I can ever remember seeing on film.

Hear and Nowwas a major award winner at the Sundance Film Festival and is now being shown on HBO. Even if you don’t have premium cable, or even if you don’t have a television- find a way to see this film.

At a time where there is so much cynicism, so much negative in the world… it does the heart good to see humanity in it’s purest form. It almost gives you the audacity to hope for something better from mankind.