Listen (dir. Taliesin Black-Brown)
By: Adam Freed
So much of the world’s agony is a direct result of mankind’s unwillingness to stop and listen. Perhaps the most undervalued of the senses, auditory perception, opens the possibility to absorb a medicinal level of calm and understanding from the world at large. This possibility grows exponentially when it comes to the offerings of Mother Nature. It is no secret that the talents of the world’s most gifted artists, regardless of their medium, pale in comparison to the ceaselessly majestic power of nature herself. The salve of nature’s call is no secret to Hank Lentfer, an Alaskan sound recordist and the subject of Director Teliesin Black-Brown’s award-winning documentary short film Listen. The stunningly cinematic and naturalistic film is a bold announcement from Black-Brown, a filmmaker who has seemingly found a way to harness the wind, in addition to a cacophony of other invisible contributors to Alaska's breathtaking sonic landscape.
There is no shortage of documentaries that provide insight into the natural world, but almost exclusively, those films pride themselves on their ability to capture unseen footage of animal life and Earth’s most remote regions. Nature films that predate Listen have mostly anchored their pride and purpose in their ability to show and tell. Hank Lentfer captures the sounds of his native land with a childlike wonder that is endlessly contagious. Within the compact confines of Listen, Black-Brown captures his subject’s open-hearted and inspirational view of the world, and the very specific impact it makes on Lentfer’s family. There is an inevitable and inspirational underbelly to Listen that will, without question, reveal itself to audiences willing to set aside fifteen minutes to absorb the touching and memorable short film.
Listen has already made an indelible impact on this year’s festival circuit, winning the top prize within the documentary short category at the 25th Tribeca International Film Festival. While awards are a wonderful acknowledgement of Taliesin Black-Brown’s peaceful and contemplative film, the greatest prize it has to offer is the powerful message that it radiates pertaining to the limitless power of possibility found within the serene escapes of the natural world. More powerful than any prescription is the infinite echo of the untamed wilderness. Just beyond the reach of the yawning urban sprawl that has become synonymous with Earth’s expanding population, is a limitless evergreen forest densely packed full of potential answers to many of life’s questions. These answers call out in the form of howls, chirps, and wails, begging to be heard by those still enough to contemplate the power of their cries. A limitless world of potential healing with nary a copay in sight, one only has to be willing to listen.
Target Score 10/10 - Short documentaries don’t come more clearly motivated or devastatingly delivered than Listen. The outwardly simple, yet elegantly layered story of a sound recordist capturing the calls of his native Alaskan wilderness is a breathtaking introspective experience. Once the purpose of Hank Lentfer’s endeavors become clear, Taliesin Black-Brown’s film rapidly ascends into a rare form of poignancy and brilliance.
