32 Sounds (2023): Curious. Wondrous. Lovely.

by Len Weiler

“Experience a film like you’ve never heard before.”  So goes the tagline for the somewhat under-the-radar movie 32 Sounds. And it’s not a bad introduction to what, in my experience, is a film unlike any other.  For one thing, as the title suggests it is an exploration of sound – specifically its profound effect in and on our lives; and, as the tagline promises, the movie is quite an experience. 32 Sounds immerses you in its topic like no other movie.

First publicly screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, this documentary has since shown at numerous festivals, large and small. But it has never had a commercial theatrical run, as far as I can tell. In fact, given the limitations of speaker systems in most theaters, the film has been specifically designed for home viewing.  And, good news, it is stream-able on several platforms (see below). The best way to take in 32 Sounds, the director Sam Green tells us, is wearing headphones - which also means, for most of us, being alone.  

Part of the reason to isolate is so you can fully concentrate on and appreciate what you are hearing without  distractions. Another reason for the headphones in some instances is to emphasize how sound changes depending on our spatial relationship to the source, which is difficult to mimic on most speaker systems, but can work pretty well with headphones. Indeed, in some places in the film, the screen is blanked – to further focus your attention on the audio content and to best demonstrate the spatial aspect of noise. It's a wonder how – even with our eyes closed - we can not only discern which direction a sound is coming from but its proximity to us as well! 

Our ability to hear has practical advantages, to be sure. Top among them are aural communications like speech; as well as awareness of danger, whether from the growl of a predator, the rumble of oncoming vehicles, or from human enemies: the whoosh of an arrow, the explosions of gunfire, the clank of armor or the footsteps of an approaching army. But sound also enriches our lives in innumerable ways. Rhythm, music, a soothing voice, distant street sounds, snippets of a distant conversation, a crackling fireplace, and the sounds of nature: rain, leaves rustling in a breeze, a bubbling stream, birdsong, and on and on.    

We all know this, obviously, but 32 Sounds provides an opportunity to reflect on something absolutely marvelous that we typically take for granted much of the time. Not just the sounds themselves but our ears’ near miraculous ability to so perfectly translate the noises in the air into electrical signals that our brains just as miraculously can instantly translate and discern as train whistles, footsteps, cat purrs, a particular song or what have you.

Sam Green is an award-winning documentarian [The Weather Underground (2002), A Thousand Thoughts(2018)]. After a silly yet ingratiating opening scene with Green and his composer buddy JD Samson rehearsing an intro to the movie, we are presented with sound number one. Fittingly, it is the first sound a human embryo hears and that all of us heard in the womb. Green's soft voice invitingly narrates. Some sections of 32 Sounds, including that first sound, are sweetly evocative. Another early segment is evocative in a different, and even more poignant way; it’s the very last surviving moho bracatus – a now extinct Hawaiian bird species – recorded  futilely singing his mating call.  Another chapter includes a discussion of “ghost voices”, the voices of loved ones that are no longer with us - mom, dad, a favorite grandparent, an old friend – which we can still sort-of conjure up and almost, but not quite hear in our heads. There is a viscerally stimulating section devoted to the “80 cycle”: the deep throbbing bass sounds in music, that at full volume rattles windows, shakes the floor, and drives us to get up and dance our hearts out. I especially enjoyed a couple of segments featuring demonstrations, by Foley artist Joanna Fang, of the art of creating the sounds which are added to films post-production to enhance dramatic effects: punches, falling trees, gunshots, screeching tires, footsteps, you name it.   

All of this done with a light cinematic touch that has been described as poetic. I found 32 Sounds fascinating on many levels and always engaging.  I loved how personal it felt – largely thanks to the headphones but also the way Green seemed to be speaking directly to me one-on-one. Because the film does not have a single overarching narrative, it’s easy to watch it over two or three sessions, without reducing its impact or value. 

At its conclusion, 32 Sounds tells us that it was “inspired by Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) by François Girard, which was in turn inspired by The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach (1741).” I’m not altogether sure why that’s of particular importance to us, but I do note that those works are also easily severable so that they, too, can be taken in over several sittings. Very convenient. Antecedents aside,  32 Sounds is an unusual, worthwhile, quite extraordinary experience. I don’t often do this, but to give you a little flavor, here’s a link to the movie’s trailer: 32 Sounds trailer

This is an interesting, life affirming film, and I encourage you to check it out.

1 hour 35 minutes

Grade: B+

Available free with a subscription to The Criterion Channel; or to rent on Amazon, AppleTV and other pay-per-view platforms