32 Sounds is an immersive “live cinema” documentary that explores the elemental phenomenon of sound by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Green, who was last at MASS MoCA with Kronos Quartet for A Thousand Thoughts. The film weaves together 32 audio experiences, crafting a cinematic poem that is a meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us. 32 Sounds features original music by JD Samson, performed live.

“Each performance of [Sam Green’s] live documentaries…is a singular experience, and a collective one, with the potential for human connection and human error.” — The New York Times

Sam Green – Director, Writer, Editor
JD Samson – Music
Nels Bangerter – Editor
Thomas O Kriegsmann – Producer
Josh Penn – Producer
Evan Neff – Producer

32 Sounds is commissioned by Stanford Live, Stanford University; The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi; Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Institute of Technology; Green Music Center of Sonoma State University; Arizona Arts Live! at University of Arizona ; and developed through a creative residency at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Artists
Sam Green (Director, Writer, Editor) is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. Green’s most recent live documentaries include A Thousand Thoughts (with the Kronos Quartet) (2018), The Measure of All Things (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010). With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Green’s 2004 feature-length film, The Weather Underground, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award, was included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world.

JD Samson (Composer, Performer) is best known as leader of the band MEN and for being one-third of the electronic-feminist-punk band and performance project, Le Tigre. For more than a decade JD’s career as a visual artist, musician, producer and DJ has landed her at the intersection of the music, art, activism, and fashion. During that time she has toured the world, produced songs for Grammy award winning artists, written for publications such as Huffington Post, Talkhouse, and Creative Time Review, created multi-media artwork, hosted documentary programs, acted, modeled, and engaged in direct support with a wide-range of progressive social and political causes. JD is now an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Make a Plan

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• Preferred ticket-holders get the best seat in the house and museum admission on the day of or after the event.
• This performance is general admission seating and will take place in MASS MoCA’s Hunter Center.
• Masks are required for all indoor spaces, except while eating and drinking, regardless of vaccination status.
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Photo: JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images