Escucha

A personal reflection on hands, the word "tear," and caring for oneself that experiments with sound, silence, and definitions.

Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.

For an anxious person, being trapped on a boat with someone you don't like can be the tense. Stuck for hours afloat, nothing on the line, bad conversation, and cold winds as resentment rises. Both people chained to a rod and tackle because one won't speak up and admit that they want to go home.

A tale of separation portrayed through a rift between image and sound.

A WWII paratrooper gets lost in a forest as the line between reality and memory begins to blur.

"A soundscape is any collection of sounds, almost like a painting is a collection of visual attractions," says composer R. Murray Schafer. "When you listen carefully to the soundscape it becomes quite miraculous." David New's portrait of the renowned composer becomes a lesson unto itself, gracing viewers (and listeners) with a singular moment of interactive subjectivity. This film was produced for the 2009 Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

See the sound of the noise.

This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.

A film featuring architect, sculptor, and musician Nobuo Kubota in a sound-sculpture performance. From within a cage-like structure filled with traditional musical instruments and sound-making devices fashioned from ordinary objects and toys, Kubota creates an aural/visual montage of musical notes and noises. Praised by music educators as a valuable tool for teaching creativity in sound exploration and musical innovation, the film reveals the infinite percussion possibilities of simple objects and presents a portrait of a versatile performer whose imagination has led him far beyond the confines of conventional music. Directed by Jonny Silver - 1982 | 20 min

Exploring helplessness, Pyre is an experimental short film which personifies death as a ghoul in a dress, drawing closer and closer until striking.

A mysterious rumble splits the sky and reverberates in the middle of the forest. A man delves into its depths to discover its origin and answer the questions presented by the universe.