'Voices of the Rainforest' Australian Premiere and Q&A with Steven Feld

Following the successful 'Perspectives of Listening' Biosphere Soundscapes Symposium in 2018, we are excited to welcome Steven Feld back to Brisbane for the Australian premiere of 'Voices of the Rainforest', to be followed by a Q&A with Director and Producer Steven Feld and Biosphere Soundscapes director Leah Barclay.

Experience a journey into Papua New Guinea's Bosavi rainforest and an intimate portrayal of its people through this environmental rockumentary concert of a day in the life of the forest and music it inspires.

Directed and produced by Steven Feld, and recorded with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, the project benefits the Bosavi Peoples Fund, advocating for environmental and cultural survival in the most remote part of Papua New Guinea.

WHEN: Friday 13 December
TIME: 6pm for a 6.30pm start
WHERE: Griffith Film School Cinema
COST: Free. Bookings essential.

MORE INFO:
'Voices of the Rainforest' is a seventy-minute, 4K image and 7.1 surround sound documentary about the ecological and aesthetic co-evolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. It is produced and directed by Steven Feld, who first began regular research visits to Bosavi in 1976 and is the author of 'Sound and Sentiment'.

'Voices' was originally a 1991 CD release produced by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart for his Rykodisc series 'The World'. The recording condenses twenty-four hours of sounds of the rainforest and the Bosavi people into an hour. It makes audible myriad connections between the everyday sounds of the rainforest biosphere and the creative practices of singing to, with, and about it by the Bosavi people. As a work of advocacy for environmental and cultural sustainability, the CD royalties have benefited the Bosavi Peoples Fund, which aides the educational, legal, medical, and social needs of the Bosavi community.

In 2016 Feld digitized the original analog audio tapes held in Mickey Hart’s archive, and recomposed an expanded 'Voices' as a 7.1 cinema surround sound concert for the recording’s 25th anniversary. The work was done at George Lucas’s Skywalker Sound, in collaboration with Academy Award nominated sound editor Dennis Leonard. Performances were held in major music halls and auditoriums in the USA, Australia, and Europe in 2017.

The success of the immersive soundtrack led to funding efforts to digitize Feld’s archive of Bosavi images, and to send Feld and filmmaker Jeremiah Richards to Bosavi for two months in summer 2018 with high-resolution cameras and drones to renew the project locally. During the trip Bosavi people suggested the film be in two parts, the first a visualization of the 7.1 surround Voices of the Rainforest concert, the second an update about the state of the forest and the problems of development in what remains a remote and under-served region of Papua New Guinea. Feld and Richards will return to Bosavi at the close of 2019 to show the concert film, and to complete the companion documentary, 'New Voices of the Rainforest', for 2020.

Voices of the Rainforest
Concert Film on BluRay Disc
Created in collaboration with the Bona community of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea. Produced by Steven Feld and Dennis Leonard. Directed by Steven Feld and Jeremiah Ra Richards. Executive Producers: Caryl and Mickey Hart. Research, Sound Recording, Composition, Still Photography: Steven Feld. Videography, Drone Imaging, Film Editing: Jeremiah Ra Richards. 7.1 Cinema Surround Editing and Mixing: Dennis Leonard