Thursday, April 29, 2010

More Soundtracker Hot Docs Reviews - Milliongossip.com

http://www.milliongossip.com/65649-black-sheep-previews-hot-docs-2010

Another Review, this time on Allan Tong's blog

ALLAN TONG: Soundtracker [Hot Docs review]

Soundtracker Featured on Hot Docs short list!

Check out this video of Hot Docs programmer talking about a few of his favorite films at the fest this year. Hint: the first one he mentions...yep.
http://www.hotdocs.ca/news/programmer_picks_director_of_programming_sean_farnel

Soundtracker featured in IndieWIRE's "In the Works" Column

This appeared in today's “In the Works” column on IndieWIRE. “In the Works” is a weekly column taking a look at upcoming films, in addition to projects in production. It spotlights films in development, as well completed films that are taking creative paths towards distribution and occasionally ventures away from films to look at other types of projects, such as interesting new film distribution, funding, or exhibition mechanisms.

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(excerpt) to read the whole thing go to... http://www.indiewire.com/article/2010/04/28/in_the_works_eerie_inn_crude_story_quiet_hunt_immigrant_mess_microloan_impa/

“Soundtracker”
About the film: Filmmaker Nicholas Sherman worked together with “Hoop Dreams” producer Frederick Marx on a documentary in the Himalayas and was inspired to direct his own film, one focused on the natural world but with a strong human element. When he read about Gordon Hempton in the newspaper, he found his subject and quickly made arrangements to accompany him into the field and unobtrusively (and quietly!) film his activities. Sherman explains: “It was sort of like shooting a nature film about a rarely seen animal, a snow leopard or something – only in this case our snow leopard was the soundtracker.”

Current status: The project is nearly complete, and will be premiering next week at Hot Docs and then moving on to other festival engagements. Producers are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to cover the post-production costs, including a sound mix, color correction, and some clearances for archival footage.

For more information and to support the film: http://kck.st/9yfXW2. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, the filmmakers will not receive any donations unless they meet their fundraising goal of $5000 by their May 15th deadline.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Soundtracker is an Official Selection of Telluride Mountainfilm 2010!

(from their website) http://www.mountainfilm.org/festival/2010/index.asp

Currently in its 32nd year, the Mountainfilm Festival is a four-day, six-senses experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment. It attracts filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. Our audiences also come from around the world to gather in theaters that range from historical to state-of-the-art in the box canyon of Telluride, Colorado and the gondola-linked town of Mountain Village.

Our motto is “Celebrating Indomitable Spirit.”

The spirit we celebrate may be of a vital eco-system or a fragile one. It may be of an endangered culture or of one courageous soul. It may be of a grassroots sustainability movement or of the struggle of a species on the brink of extinction. In whichever case, it is always a spirit that is unique, important and eminently laudable.
The Festival Weekend

The festival begins each year with its Moving Mountains Symposium. This full-day event has a different topical theme each year that is explored, discussed and debated by a panel of world class experts drawn from many and varied disciplines. In 2009 we featured Food, for 2010 we will feature The Extinction Crisis.

Special Events throughout the weekend provide a chance to mingle with other festival guests, bask in the beauty of Telluride, and stimulate all 6 senses. The Gallery Walk following our Symposium affords a chance to meet and greet while strolling from one Telluride art gallery to the next to view original paintings, sculpture, photography and multi-media works of wonder.

Films begin Friday evening and run through mid-Monday. Each year we have a special focus for our film programming. In 2010 we will feature The Extinction Crisis.

Throughout the weekend you will also be treated to Q&A's with your favorite filmmakers, and presentations by our Special Guests who round out the Mountainfilm experience with colorful tales of adventures and eye-opening talks of current events.

Breakfast Talks each morning offer a bite to eat while listening to casual presentations from the Minds of Mountainfilm.

Saturday afternoon we gather on Main Street to celebrate the mountains with our annual Ice Cream Social, where the frozen treats are on us!

On Sunday we get a little crazy with The Reading Frenzy, an opportunity to talk with authors and get signed copies of their books.

The Closing Picnic on Monday rounds out our weekend. Set in Telluride’s Town Park, surrounded by the soaring drama of San Juan peaks, the picnic serves as our Awards Ceremony and offers a last chance for free beer and great food, and to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Soundtracker the Movie the Blog

“This is a remarkable journey: a quest for imperiled Nature by an artist who never stopped listening.”
-Ken Burns, describing the film "Soundtracker"

"Soundtracker" is a documentary about nature sound-recordist Gordon Hempton. It premiered at the Sedona International Film Festival in March 2010 and will have its Canadian Premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto at the beginning of May.

Hot Docs described the film in the following way:

“Pure sound unaltered by human hands is becoming increasingly difficult to find.
Gordon Hempton is an Emmy Award-winning sound recordist who has spent the last 30 years trying to find and record the vanishing sounds of nature in an attempt to capture a disappearing sensory experience.

Filmmaker Nicholas Sherman observes Hempton in the wilderness for 30 days and uncovers an obsessive artist on a quest for perfection in this obscure medium. Hempton’s natural ability to locate and articulate himself through sound has a contagious energy and gives his work a transportive quality. Soundtracker is a fascinating meditation on the world’s changing landscape and the things we may be leaving behind in the service of progress.”

This is a blog by the Producer/Director of Soundtracker, Nicholas Sherman. It's a place to read more about this film, about acoustic ecology, and about the importance of listening to the world around us. It is a work in progress and this is just the first of many steps.

Welcome.

Soundtracker Trailer from Nick Sherman on Vimeo.