A filmmaker focused on the experience of watching (and, primarily, listening), Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green’s projects are best experienced live, previously with A Thousand Thoughts featuring Kronos Quartet and The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller featuring Yo La Tengo. His latest work, 32 Sounds, premiered at Sundance last year, featuring original music by JD Samson and sound design from Mark Mangini (Dune, Mad Max: Fury Road). Now set for a theatrical release starting April 28, the first trailer has landed.
During its festival run in front of a live audience, the performance featured individual headphones for each audience member and included live narration by Green and live original music by Samson. This new version is specifically designed for a completely immersive at-home or theatrical experience. The film examines the “elemental phenomenon of sound and its power to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.”
“There’s a lot of different ways of listening, and that passive way of listening is one that’s certainly pleasurable, but I’m interested in a way of active listening which isn’t usually part of the Hollywood film experience,” Green told Soundstripe. “I’ve worked with Mark Mangini, who’s amazing and just won the Oscar for Dune and worked on Mad Max: Fury Road, and I’ve certainly seen just how much a more active style of sound design can bring to a theatrical experience. However, there’s still a huge difference between how spatial sound and binaural sound can be used in terms of sonic realism for filmmakers playing smaller theaters or online.”
See the trailer and poster below.
32 Sounds opens on April 28.