Glennie bangs away with pipes, hammers, sticks, her own fingers, and is as likely to be clanging a drum or an industrial guide wire or an aluminum sheet, all in the pursuit of new sounds.
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Documentaries receive more press coverage than ever in the wake of 2004´s so-called "Year of the Documentary." Predictably the critical discussion, as well as the marketing, of documentaries revolves almost exclusively around the subject matter; the films are ultimately valued on their political or social content. Rarely does a critic (aside from the best ones like Paul Arthur) discuss form and style in regards to documentaries, perhaps because so few documentarians pay attention to aesthetic matters themselves.
There are exceptions, of course. Werner Herzog´s documentaries are as beautiful and mysterious as his fiction films. Errol Morris´ best documentaries are audiovisual masterpieces in which form precedes, and ultimately creates, function. In 2003, I saw a fine documentary called "Rivers and Tides" about the artist Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy creates temporary sculptures, works meticulously designed to exist only briefly, much like Buddhist sand mandalas. The director Thomas Riedelsheimer was faced with a challenge: can the permanency of film (as photography) capture the ephemeral nature of Goldsworthy´s art (of course, Goldsworthy would not be a famous artist if his "temporary" works were not preserved forever in photographic books). Riedelsheimer may or may not have successfully resolved this tension, but it made for a damn fascinating study. In his newest documentary, "Touch the Sound" he conducts another intriguing investigation, this time exploring the synaesthetic qualities of film.
Protagonist Evelyn Glennie invites such an approach. Glennie is a Grammy award-winning percussionist who also happens to be deaf. When interviewed by reporters, she inevitably fields the question about how she hears the music. She "just does" and doesn´t give any more thought to the matter. Like many artists, she prefers production and performance to self-analysis.
The film follows Glennie through several performances, though the primary focus is on a performance with musician Fred Frith. This impromptu gig occurs in a giant, abandoned warehouse where all sorts of strange devices, surfaces and corners promise a universe of heretofore untapped sounds. Glennie bangs away with pipes, hammers, sticks, her own fingers, and is as likely to be clanging a drum or an industrial guide wire or an aluminum sheet, all in the pursuit of new sounds.
Riedelsheimer repeats a visual theme of rippling waves: pennants and wheat fields flutter in the breeze, concentric circles of water radiate outward from a splash, sand blows in rills along the beach. If he cannot actually enable the viewer to "touch the sound", he can make the viewer "see" sound waves in various ways; this approach also helps locate Glennie´s techno-performance firmly in the natural realm, a neat and satisfying juxtaposition. The DVD comes with both Dolby Surround and DTS Surround options, which might make it possible for home viewer with powerful bass speakers and understanding neighbors to "touch the sound" as well. Fortunately, Riedelsheimer doesn´t try to pursue taste and smell in his quest; the only documentarian I know who ever came close to pulling off that synaesthetic sleight-of-hand is Epicurean nonpareil Les Blank ("Yum Yum Yum!")
As a child, Glennie didn´t want to attend a school for the deaf, opting to continue in "mainstream" schools instead. At no point in the film, do we see her use sign language, and her homepage (www.evelyn.co.uk) makes no mention at all of her deafness. The film sidesteps any political issues surrounding such a decision, probably wise considering how heated the debate can be, as seen most recently in the protests at Gallaudet University over the election of a new president viewed by some as "not deaf enough" because she was, like Glennie, taught in mainstream schools and did not learn sign language until she was an adult. Though I am certain Glennie has to confront this issue regularly, she evinces no awareness of it in the film.
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[release]19121[/release]