In Pursuit of Silence
Patrick Shen
USA
81 minutes

Synopsis

In Pursuit of Silence is a meditative exploration of our relationship with silence, sound and the impact of noise on our lives. Beginning with an ode to John Cage’s ground-breaking composition 4’33”, In Pursuit of Silence takes us on an immersive cinematic journey around the globe– from a traditional tea ceremony in Kyoto, to the streets of the loudest city on the planet, Mumbai during the wild festival season – and inspires us to experience silence and celebrate the wonders of our world.

About the Director

Patrick Shen is a filmmaker and the founder of Transcendental Media. Patrick’s work, which includes the award-winning films Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality, The Philosopher Kings, and La Source, has screened at over 120 film festivals across the globe, broadcast in over 25 territories, received 20 awards and 10 nominations, and has been featured on CNN, Huffington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.

Post Film Discussions:

Ben Grossman will lead the post-film discussion. Grossman is the founder of the SILENCE performance space in Guelph and is a busy musician: improviser, studio musician, composer, noisemaker and audio provocateur. He works in many fields, having played on over 80 CDs, soundtracks for film and television, sound design for theatre, installations, work designed for radio transmission, and live performances spanning early medieval music to experimental electronica. Ben's tools of choice are electronics, percussion, and, especially, the hurdy gurdy (vielle à roue), a contemporary electro-acoustic string instrument with roots in the European middle ages. Through extended techniques, live-looping and processing, Ben seeks to use it as a physical interface into improvised sound creation, spontaneous composition and the exploration of acoustics, form and extended aesthetics.