Review: 32 Sounds
by Karen Pecota

Sam Green, USA 2022

In an avatar form, the audience came together in a theater within the New Frontier Spaceship experience for the opening event of the festival to participate in a full-length feature documentary from award-winning filmmaker Sam Green with 32 SOUNDS. Green's ground-breaking documentary began with a short film the year before that Sundance showcased in the New Frontier Section.

Green explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and how it affects our conscious and subconscious lives. The premise weaves together 32 audio sounds that craft a cinematic poem explaining the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and shape our perception of the world. Green explains how sound travels in a variety of ways, for example: vibrations of sound through the air; vibrations to the ear canal to our bones; and that sound is doing something to your mind.

Another interesting thought Green explains is how we listen with vs. how we listen to. He continues to show that surround sound envelopes you and why it is good for movies but it's not the real life. Green shares that the brain tries to figure out where the sound comes from and tries to locate its proximity; but, through sound everything changes but nothing is lost.

Green's vast array of information relates to an understanding that sound is deep, thought provoking, and an encouragement to listen to our surroundings with much more intensity. Surprise discoveries will most certainly occur.