IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE

Directed by Patrick Shen

Asian American Panorama / USA / 2015 / Documentary, Music / 81 mins / English, Japanese with English subtitles / DCP

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IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE

UltraStar Mission Valley
Wednesday, November 9, 2016 6:35 pm

Description

Official Selection, 2016 SXSW Film Festival
Official Selection, 2015 CPH:DOX
Official Selection, 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection, 2016 Sheffield Doc/Fest
Special Jury Mention, 2016 Ashland Independent Film Festival

Technology connects our lives with information and sensory experiences, and in doing so, bombards us with not only data noise but auditory noise as well. The wholesale result is the seemingly inescapable absorption of sound, leaving silence as a forgotten casualty of modernity. In his latest documentary, director Patrick Shen (The Philosopher Kings, SDAFF ‘09) introduces figures, including author George Prochnik from whose book IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE borrows its title, who seek out the meanings of silence in a world that seems to no longer have a place for it.

Along the journey, we meet Greg Hindy, a college student who took a vow of silence while walking across America for year. And we meet Dr. Yoshifumi Miyazaki, who commissioned and designated sixty spots as certified forest therapy locations throughout Japan. Their examples and others, including the pioneering work of John Cage, recalibrate our relationship with sound, technology, and the world. Through interviews and images that stun with their visual luminosity, Shen commands our attention, laying out different paths for experience and the pursuit of meaning. –Eric Lallana

Preceded By

IF I WERE ANY FURTHER AWAY I’D BE CLOSER TO HOME

Rajee Samarasinghe / Sri Lanka, USA / 2016 / 15 mins
Memories of a family business, seen from child’s height, told through the dream-like distance of silence.
Precedes: IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE