A John D. Sullivan Memorial 7C Event
Steven Feld is an anthropologist, filmmaker, musician, and sound artist. He is an American ethnomusicologist, anthropologist, and linguist, who worked for many years with the Kaluli (Bosavi) people of Papua New Guinea. He earned a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.
Voices of the Rainforest is an experiential documentary about the ecological and aesthetic coevolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. The film immerses viewers in the rainforest, making connections between the everyday sounds of the rainforest biosphere and the creative practices of the Bosavi people who sing to, with, and about it.
The film is based on Feld’s 1991 acousmatic composition of the same name, which condensed 24 hours of sounds of the rainforest and the Bosavi people into an hour. Produced by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, the piece was digitized and recomposed into a surround-sound experience. The success of the soundtrack prompted the digitization of Feld’s archive of Bosavi images and a two-month trip to Bosavi by Feld and filmmaker Jeremiah Richards, who brought high-resolution cameras and drones to renew the project.
Following the screening, Steven Feld will discuss the film with Ruti Talmor, associate professor of media studies.
