32 Sounds

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32 Sounds

Released Apr 28, 2023

1h 38m

Documentary

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Popcornmeter

96%

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26 Reviews

87%

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

32 Sounds is an immersive feature documentary and profound sensory experience from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) featuring original music by JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN). The film explores the elemental phenomenon of sound by weaving together 32 specific sound explorations into a cinematic meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us. Join Oscar-nominated filmmaker Green as he takes the audience on a journey through time and space -- exploring everything from forgotten childhood memories, to the soundtrack of resistance, to subaquatic symphonies -- and experience in new ways the astonishing sounds of our everyday lives. 32 Sounds investigates the mysterious nature of perception and the subtle yet radical politics that arise from sensation and being present in one's body.

Lindsay Zoladz

New York Times

A relentlessly curious documentary...

Nov 20, 2023

Full Review

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

A remarkable documentary and something you’ll never forget.

Nov 20, 2023

Full Review

Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

Since I’d readily “listen”-watch them all, that tells you 32 Sounds and I are very much on the same wavelength about appreciating its subject...

Nov 20, 2023

Full Review

Will Mavity

Next Best Picture

There are far more riveting and better-made documentaries this year to be seen, but there are few more interesting ones than this to listen to.

Rated: 6/10

Jan 29, 2024

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Amid the gamut of artfully assembled archival footage, interviews, animation, and hard science, we get some great trivia...

Jul 31, 2023

Full Review

Charles Solomon

FilmWeek (LAist)

I was very interested in the subject of this film... But it just doesn't go anywhere. It's just throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.

Jun 6, 2023

Full Review

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Steven B

an amazing meditation on sound and what it means to be human

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/24

Full Review

Charles W

As they remark in the movie, sound often seems subservient and overlooked in movies, docs and social media, and yet if you subtract it, a whole gamut of emotions are gone. Moreover taking sound in isolation, or for its specific purpose, as in this documentary, you ‘hear in focus’ . The tradegy of the doomed male bird before extinction, the poignancy of archive voices, the clever foley artists job. Worth a listen, put your earphones on, and close your eyes as instructed.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/04/25

Full Review

Joe P

It is rare when a film feels both cosmic and personal. This one nails it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/26/23

Full Review

Lucy S

I got to watch in the theater with the special headset, it felt revelatory and made me remember how magical cinema can be. A fast moving, poetic and reflective piece about how sound shapes our internal and external worlds.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/23/23

Full Review

Joseph H

An incredible experience. Thoughtful exploration of how sound helps shape and make the world around us. How our relationship to sound forms our world and how we respond to it. Lots of humor, a bit of tragedy, told by a group of people which includes a bit of audience participation. I highly recommend it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/08/23

Full Review

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Sam Green

Director

Sam Green

Narrator

Sam Green

Screenwriter

Josh Penn

Producer

Thomas O. Kriegsmann

Producer

Jenifer Westphal

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

32 Sounds is an immersive feature documentary and profound sensory experience from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) featuring original music by JD Samson (Le Tigre, MEN). The film explores the elemental phenomenon of sound by weaving together 32 specific sound explorations into a cinematic meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us. Join Oscar-nominated filmmaker Green as he takes the audience on a journey through time and space -- exploring everything from forgotten childhood memories, to the soundtrack of resistance, to subaquatic symphonies -- and experience in new ways the astonishing sounds of our everyday lives. 32 Sounds investigates the mysterious nature of perception and the subtle yet radical politics that arise from sensation and being present in one's body.

Director: Sam Green
Producer: Josh Penn, Thomas O. Kriegsmann
Screenwriter: Sam Green
Distributor: Abramorama
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 28, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 1h 38m

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