The Film
Searching for the last quiet places.
Synopsis
There are very few places of quiet left in the United States. For the past thirty years, Emmy Award-winning nature sound recordist Gordon Hempton has made it his life’s mission to find and record these places before they are gone completely.
Soundtracker follows Gordon on the road and into the wilderness as he travels throughout America’s West in search of these quiet places. Unwilling to give up when the noise of civilization intrudes upon his every recording, his quest takes on new dimensions as he begins to search for a different kind of sound that captures his imagination and the spirit of America.
Shot throughout the Pacific Northwest and sound-mixed to incorporate Gordon’s own pristine binaural recordings, Soundtracker explores the sounds and the soul of an uncompromising artist.
Director Nicholas Sherman tells how the film came together, from a newspaper article to the last day of the shoot, in his interview about making Soundtracker.
Web exclusive
Amazon, twenty years later.
Twenty years ago, Gordon Hempton traveled to Brazil’s Amazon to record the sounds of the jungle. This is what it sounded like when he went back in November 2010.
Film facts
The details, in one place.
- Title
- SOUNDTRACKER: A Portrait of Gordon Hempton
- Year
- 2010
- Running time
- 82 minutes
- Country
- USA
- Director
- Nicholas Sherman (also writer and producer)
- Subject
- Gordon Hempton, acoustic ecologist
- Audio
- English; German dub. Stereo, with Gordon Hempton’s binaural recordings
- Subtitles
- English, English SDH, Spanish
- Picture
- 16×9, color
- Download
- 1080p HD MP4, DRM-free: Film $14.99 or Complete Edition $19.99 (prices include tax)
- DVD
- NTSC, signed, while stock lasts: from $39.99
- Education
- Licenses with public performance rights: from $149
- Tagline
- Silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything.
Credits
Fou Films presents a Nicholas Sherman film.
- Director, Producer, Writer
- Nicholas Sherman
- Director of Photography
- Martin DiCicco
- Editor
- J. Davis
- Original Score
- David Wingo
- Binaural Audio Recordings
- Gordon Hempton
- Associate Producers
- Jean Sherman
- John Sherman
- Frederick Marx
- J. Davis
- Post Production Sound Mixing
- Adam Wade
- Titles and Graphic Design
- Graham Wilson
- Production Sound
- Nicholas Sherman
- Still Photos
- Kari Wilton
- Gordon Hempton
- Julie Hempton
- Michael Francisco
- Colorists
- Martin DiCicco
- Nicholas Sherman
- Legal Services
- Christopher J. Keene, Keene Law Office
- Music Supervisors
- J. Davis
- Nicholas Sherman
- Additional Music
- “Untitled 2” and “Untitled 5” written and performed by Abel Russ
- “Tranquillo Bolero” and “Cienfuegos” composed by Tim Kobza, ASCAP; performed by The Tim Kobza Band; publisher Kobzamuzic, ASCAP
- Additional Editing
- Nicholas Sherman
Special thanks
The Hempton Family, Kari Wilton, Molly Rysman, Solen Kiratli, Sara Hutchison, Brad Petrigala, David Karp, Jay Duplass, Juan Carlos Blancas Avilés, Jason Tyrrell, Krysanne Katsoolis, John and Liz Barnhardt, Granny’s Café, Chris Baier, Anna Sheldon, James Monegan, Emily Cummins Kwong, Henry Lee, Michael Picton, Daniel McCoy, Mark Hosack, Kevin Stalls