Sundance Documentary ‘32 Sounds’ Sells to Abramorama (EXCLUSIVE)

Rebecca Rubin
·2 min read

“32 Sounds,” an immersive and experiential documentary, has sold North American rights to Abramorama following its premiere at Sundance Film Festival.

The movie, which explores the phenomenon of sound through 32 specific sonic experiences, will begin its nationwide theatrical rollout at New York City’s Film Forum on April 28.

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To complete the unique auditory experience, several venues, including Film Forum, will offer audience members individual sets of headphones so they can watch “32 Sounds” the way the filmmaker intended.

“32 Sounds” had its world premiere at Sundance, where it played to positive reviews. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge wrote that the movie is “bursting with humor, emotion and curiosity” and praised it as a “rare and rewarding sonic journey with the potential to enrich our lives.”

London-based sales agent and financier Architect are handling international sales and introduced 32 Sounds to distributors during last month’s EFM.

Directed and written by Sam Green (“The Weather Underground”) and featuring original music by JD Samson, “32 Sounds” seeks to take audiences on a journey through time and space, exploring everything from forgotten childhood memories to the subaquatic symphonies, to experience in new ways the sounds of everyday life.

Green says he wants the film to “define a new way of listening to narrative entertainment.”

“In making this film, we have been inspired by many people who think deeply about sound, but these words from Randy Thom have been a particular inspiration: ‘We are fundamentally emotional creatures who struggle to be rational, and sound plays the role of the puppeteer, pulling our strings more deeply and compellingly than perhaps any other sense. Odd then that we don’t take it seriously,’” the director said in a statement. “Our hope is that after ’32 Sounds,’ audiences will leave the theater and never hear the world in the same way again.”

Abramorama’s CEO Richard Abramowitz called the movie “gorgeous” and “sublime.”

“I don’t know what I said to Sam that caused him to wait 20 years to work with me again but I’m grateful that he got over it and thrilled that we get to collaborate on his gorgeous, sublime, new film ’32 Sounds,'” Abramowitz said. “At the risk of falling into cliché, it’s truly and honor and a privilege to be part of bringing his work out into the world.”

“32 Sounds” was produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann. Executive producers were Jenifer Westphal, Joe Plummer, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Lauren Haber, Nina Fialkow, Marni E.J. Grossman, Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch of The Harnisch Foundation, Jamie Wolf, Michael Y. Chow and Sue Turley, Janet and Gottfried Tittiger, Kenneth & Elizabeth Whitney, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman.

Watch the trailer below:

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