We tend to think of silence as absence. How can we pursue something that’s not there? Where would we find it? Why should we want to? This film challenges Western society’s most basic preconceptions about the very nature of silence. In the industrialized world, volume marks energy and importance; quietude is associated with lethargy, insignificance, and emptiness. But as this film reveals, silence isn’t nothingness at all. Rather, it is something we hear, and listening puts us in more profound contact with all that is present in the world. Seeking refuge from the daily cacophony of buzzes, bings, and banter isn’t “downtime,” it’s an active pursuit of spiritual, physiological, and psychological necessity. At times meditatively tranquil, at others maddeningly frenetic, this film’s sumptuous sound design conjures up innovative ways to help us hear what we’ve been missing all along.  TAW