Directed by Alison O'Daniel
USA | 2023 | Documentary | 91 min | English
Film Source: Filmmakers Collaborative
Sponsored by: Main Street Landing
Taking a surprising string of tuba thefts at high schools across California as its jumping-off point, The Tuba Thieves embarks on an inventive and engaging cinematic rumination on sound, deafness, and visual language. Open Captions are present throughout, translating language, both spoken and signed, and decoding the soundscape with deft, evocative descriptions. Urban noise, the crackle of wildfires, and the hum of machinery are just as central to the film’s ambient palette as character and story. There is the felt sense that The Tuba Thieves is aiming to break through cinema’s sound barrier. ~TW “A complex, enigmatic look at the impact of sound on day-to-day life and what happens when it’s removed from the picture — the theft, in essence, happens within the language of the movie itself. ~ Eric Kohn, Indiewire Note: *Everyone in the audience will have the opportunity to hold a latex balloon during the screening. This technique is a throwback to the tradition of Deaf moviegoers who would gather in Deaf clubs in the 1950s and 60s and hold balloons while watching films together. The latex membrane of the balloon is another form of access—a second speaker—for the audience to feel the soundtrack. Sound waves travel through the air into the surface of the balloon, enabling the audience to access a huge range of vibrations, from the tiny sensitive sounds to deeper sub-bass frequencies.