Skip to main content
32 Sounds by Sam Green VIFF live event

Sam Green: 32 Sounds

Music by JD Samson

This event has passed

An immersive documentary and profound sensory experience from filmmaker Sam Green that explores the elemental phenomenon of sound. The film is a meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us. The film will be at VIFF 2023 in its “live cinema” form at the Vancouver Playhouse, featuring live narration by Sam Green. Directed and performed by Sam Green, with music composed by JD Samson.

32 Sounds is a piece about sound, and the form itself will be focused on the experience of hearing and listening. 32 Sounds will provide headphones for every audience member to create an incredible binaural sound mix and add a new, deeply immersive element to the live documentary form.

 

Followed by a Q&A with Sam Green & sound designer Mark Mangini

 

A true original, Sam Green is a master raconteur. An endearing guide with a host of charms for encountering the many, many multitudes of ideas, artists, works of art, interviewees, and commentary that make 32 Sounds such a remarkable live cinema experience.
Impeccably researched, the work takes metaphysical stock, as it were, of the nature of ‘sound’ — its ability to profoundly shape our perceptions and sense of reality. 32 Sounds is Green’s latest live screen romp, here for VIFF LIVE 2023 with a special screening at the Vancouver Playhouse.
Green was last in Vancouver in 2014; the PuSh Festival screened The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller at the Vogue to a packed house of raving enthusiasts. Similarly, 32 Sounds is a VIFF event not to be missed!

Norman Armour, VIFF Guest Live Curator

A relentlessly curious documentary. A wide-ranging meditation on sound and human memory. Heady and spine-tingling… engaging and richly visual. A 95-minute exploration that leapfrogs across several dozen scintillating surfaces.

Lindsay Zoladz, The New York Times

Sam Green’s 32 SOUNDS is a playful, thoughtful documentary… a delightful, joyous film that changes the way you look at — or maybe listen to — the world.

Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

Touches on sense memory…and it dares to tackle the question: If a tree falls in the woods, does it really make a sound?… probably the only movie to ever turn a Moho braccatus’s mating call into something that could move you to tears.

David Fear, Rolling Stone

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Guest
Date

Oct 5

Time

7:00-8:30 pm

Venue

Vancouver Playhouse

Links
90 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Guest

Sam Green headshot

Sam Green

Sam Green (director, writer, editor) is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. Green’s most recent live documentaries include A Thousand Thoughts (with the Kronos Quartet) (2018), The Measure of All Things (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010). With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Green’s 2004 feature-length film, The Weather Underground, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award, was included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world.

Learn more about Green

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes film image; man painting by a river

The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes

Dir. Jenn Strom
82 min

A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

I Am Revathi

Dir. P. Abhijith
115 min

I Am Revathi offers a deeply personal and intimate glimpse into the life of A. Revathi — trans woman, writer, activist, and theatre artist — amidst the struggles, power, and ongoing fight for dignity and inclusion faced by transgender people in India.

International Village 8

Renoir

Dir. Chie Hayakawa 早川千絵
118 min

A beguiling, bravely personal portrait of childhood featuring a superb lead performance by Yui Suzuki. As the 11-year-old Fuki, she faces down the adult world with a mixture of calm, curiosity, and courage.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
John Candy: I Like Me
John Candy: I Like Me film image; polaroid of a man in a Toronto Royals jersey

John Candy: I Like Me

Dir. Colin Hanks
113 min

A Canadian icon who defined a generation of comedy, John Candy's presence still looms large in the hearts of fans decades after his tragic death. This documentary is a hilarious, heartwarming celebration of Candy’s generous spirit and singular talent.

International Village 10

Broken Voices

Dir. Ondřej Provazník
106 min

When 13-year-old Karolina is chosen to be part of the main lineup of an acclaimed children's choir, it draws unwanted attention. Broken Voices is a gutting account of a grave abuse of power based on a real-life story.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Blue Moon

Dir. Richard Linklater
100 min

On the night of March 31, 1943, famed lyricist Lorenz Hart holds court at Broadway's iconic Sardi’s bar. While his former collaborator, Richard Rodgers, celebrates the success of his new musical, Oklahoma!, Hart confronts his own shattered present.

International Village 9 Granville Island Stage SFU Woodwards