32 Sounds, 2022.
Directed by Sam Green.
SYNOPSIS:
Explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and its power to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.
Oscar-nominated director Sam Green’s (The Weather Underground) new film 32 Sounds offers one of the most immersive documentary experiences you’re ever likely to have, paying firm tribute to the underappreciated qualities of sound in both cinema and in life.
Green’s playful, inquisitive film begins by imploring viewers to watch with a decent pair of headphones, due to so much of its audio being recorded with a bespoke directional microphone, ensuring speech and sound effects will often pan between audio channels to replicate the spatial aspects of sound.
This documentary is absolutely in love with the wonder of sound and hearing, offering up 32 different soundscapes across its 95-minute runtime, beginning quite aptly with the primal sound of a baby’s heartbeat in the womb.
Director Green makes for an affable “host” if you like, both appearing on-screen and guiding us through this sonic journey with his velvety, contemplative voiceover narration, at times inviting the viewer to close their eyes and soak in some of the more rarefied sounds on offer – namely a now-extinct bird tweeting, and music recorded in Beirut in 2006 with bombs dropping in the distance. Later on there’s even a five-minute dance interlude where the audience, whether at home or at the festival, are invited to just do whatever they want.
Narration lends context to each of the many varied sounds, even rendering a fart of all things weirdly poignant, commending the miracle of recording sounds and preserving them for playback later. 32 Sounds briefly explores the history of sound per Thomas Edison’s invention of the Phonograph and also the science of how we hear, though ultimately leans far harder on the poetic than the technical, sensibly, for a film largely concerned with the emotional impact of sounds.
Green lovingly explores how sound can be used to hold onto memories and lost loved ones, to capture moments in time in a distinct way from a photograph, given the character that a voice can lend to a person, even if a recording is itself an interpretation of an experience.
He also notes how the absence of sound can itself be affecting, and briefly touches on the experiences of deaf and hard-of-hearing people who may interpret sound in an entirely different way, as pure vibrations.
Perhaps best of all Green puts in a good word for the merits of sound in cinema, a discipline unsung enough that even many Oscar voters can’t tell the difference between sound editing and sound mixing. The art of foley, of creating a sound by interpreting what people think something sounds like, is ever fascinating, operating in tandem with the evolution of stereo and surround sound. However, one subject notes that Hollywood hasn’t yet gone all-in on binaural or directional audio due to the fact that most people don’t watch movies with headphones.
This is an undeniably niche piece of work but one crafted with skill and care by its director, begging audiences to close their eyes, open their ears, and embrace the soul-stirring power of sound, whether the faintest ambient noise or most majestic piece of music. 32 Sounds does deeply-felt justice to the experiential, tactile qualities of sound that so many of us take for granted.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
Originally published March 21, 2022. Updated March 20, 2022.
