There was a lot of Philly kismet at last weekend’s screening of 32 SOUNDS. It was a pleasure to perform at University of the Arts on Saturday night and to be in the city that’s home to Yoni Brook (the great cinematographer who shot the film), our post team at All Ages Productions, plus our EP Jen Westphal! And on top of all of that, Annea Lockwood — the star of the film — simultaneously had a show at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. She’s taking over the city! 

I don’t take for granted the chance to be in a room with an audience these days, and I’m grateful to everyone who came… and to The Philadelphia Inquirer for the huge spread on 32 SOUNDS. That’s a lot of ink!

I’m thrilled to be heading to Columbus, OH where we’ll be performing 32 Sounds as part of a retrospective of my work at the Wexner Center for the Arts!

The retrospective starts on Wednesday, September 28 with a screening of The Rainbow Man/John 3:16. This was my first film, and I finished as a resident  at the Wexner’s Film/Video Studio (my first of several residencies at the Wex!). I’m very excited to bring the film back to Columbus and to celebrate my long relationship with the great folks at the Wexner.

We perform 32 Sounds the next night (with free popcorn before and a Q&A after!), and then later in October there are screenings of The Weather Underground and The Universal Language and other shorts.

You can read more about the program here. 

Thanks to everyone who came to the run of six sold-out shows we did of 32 SOUNDS at BAM recently. That was great fun!!! 

(Couldn’t make it? Check out this review of 32 SOUNDS in the New York Times, and stay tuned for upcoming shows at 32sounds.com!)

An odd and wonderful premiere last Thursday of 32 SOUNDS on the Sundance virtual spaceship!

One of the great things was the many people who texted me photos of themselves watching at home. Thanks to everyone who tuned in – I’m still processing!

We have more screenings coming up this week:  festival.sundance.org

I said to Kat “this is the hardest movie I’ve ever made! I don’t think I can do it.” And she said,  “you say that every time – you said it with the last movie, and the one before that!” And I said “really???” And she said “yes!” And I said “but this time I really mean it!” And she said, “you said that last time too!” 

I made a new film portrait of the great composer Annea Lockwood, which I am very excited about! I know there’s an infinite amount of stuff online, but I would be thrilled if you’d take a look. If you know about Annea Lockwood, you know that she’s a lovely spirit and great muse. If you don’t know her – this is a good intro. She’s one of the smartest people about sound and listening out there. She’s made fantastic music, sound art, and performance for more than 50 years. And she’s a profoundly warm and generous person. It was a great creative challenge to try to make cinema about sound. The film is up and free all month at the Counterflows music festival website: https://counterflows.com/annea-lockwood-a-film-about-listening/

This week, JD Samson and I shared a new iteration of 7 Sounds at the Sundance Film Festival as part of their New Frontiers program. We’ve done a few versions of the project before — at IDFA and the Headlands Center for the Arts — but this 30-ish minute piece featured seven brand new sounds, and was something like a cross between a radio documentary, a sound walk, and ASMR. We asked listeners joining our livestream from around the world to listen to it in bed. It was wonderful to be back at Sundance and to share this latest version of 7 Sounds with new folks. Stay tuned for updates on the longer project JD and I are developing, 32 Sounds. 

JD Samson and I were thrilled to have 7 Sounds featured as the opening night performance at IDFA’s new media program, do {not} touch. The show was streamed simultaneously by listeners all over the world. Looking ahead to 2021, we’ll be pushing the piece forward in exciting new ways, and will have some exciting news to share very soon.