Press
What people heard.
“This is a remarkable journey: a quest for imperiled Nature by an artist who never stopped listening.”
Ken Burns
“More than a compelling portrait of sound artist Gordon Hempton, Nick Sherman’s film does what all the best films do — it re-orients and re-tunes our awareness so that we experience the world in a new way, as if we’ve spent the day alone in the natural environment of our dreams.”
Frederick Marx · Hoop Dreams
“The beautifully shot film follows Hempton for a month as he obsessively tries to capture a specific sound recording in nature…”
Basil Tsiokos · IndieWIRE
Coverage
Reviews, interviews and features.
Most of these ran in 2010. Some older links may no longer be online.
- Newsweek“An Unquiet Nation,” with clips from the film
- NOW TorontoReview · 4 out of 5
- IndieWIREIn the works
- NPR · On PointGordon Hempton’s silence
- The Sun Magazine“Quiet, Please”
- Blue Ridge Outdoors“Quest for Quiet”
- Little White LiesHot Docs 2010 review
- DOCspaceInterview with Nick Sherman
- DVD TownReview
- DVD TownInterview with Nicholas Sherman
- Oklahoma GazetteReview
- Telluride InsideReview and podcast interview
- California ChronicleReview
- Lansing Online News“These amazing people teach us to listen”
- Movie MoxieHot Docs review
- Dark of the MatineeReview
- Dark of the MatineePodcast
- Allan TongHot Docs review
- Toronto Film SceneHot Docs inspirational film subjects
- Kobré GuideThe Soundtracker
- WestwordMountainfilm announces official selections
- SonikasMadrid experimental sound festival
On Gordon Hempton
Thirty years of listening.
“America’s foremost guru of quiet.”
USA Today
“Pure, unedited nature… a blend of science and poetry.”
OMNI
“In a way, his recordings carry on the tradition of American photographer Ansel Adams, whose technically perfect photographs captured the undisturbed, timeless beauty of the mountain vistas and majestic canyons of the American West.”
Monitor Radio
“Gordon Hempton brings new meaning to the word purist. He meticulously scouts out sites for his soundscapes… Hempton is totally in touch with his environment as a listener, and he is committed to bringing what he hears to a wider audience.”
Smithsonian
“It is the sound of the awakening… a hallelujah chorus… His recordings will immortalize the few remaining quiet corners of the Earth.”
San Francisco Examiner
“Instead of using instruments, they open the ears to the sounds of the environment.”
John Cage, in People
“Your ears are caressed by resonant acoustical poetry.”
The Seattle Times
“Someday Gordon Hempton’s recordings may be heard as the last echo of nature at its most natural.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
Press inquiries