The Sound of Silence
The University of Virginia’s own Sound Justice Lab (SJL) recently held an event called Technologies of Silence, which seeks to explore the “stories, voices and experiences that the law does not hear, cannot hear, and will not hear,” according to the SJL’s co-director. The final of the eight events that took place over two days (Sept. 19 – 20) was titled Scenes from Big Mouth. This event featured scenes from the documentary Big Mouth, co-directed by Dr. Bremen Donovan, filmmaker and postdoctoral research associate at the SJL, and Dr. Nomi Dave, former lawyer and co-director of the SJL.
The panel included Dr. Mame Fatou Niang, filmmaker and professor of francophone studies at Carnegie-Mellon university; Dr. Samhita Sunya, associate professor of cinema at UVA; and Gregory Whitmore, filmmaker and archivist/librarian at the UVA Law Library. After a 20-minute sample of the film and brief introductions by Dave and Donovan, the panelists each responded to the prompt: “how is ‘silence’ expressed through the film’s sound and images?”
Big Mouth follows the stories of an activist, journalist (Moussa Yéro Bah), and lawyer (Halimatou Camara) as they investigate a series of sexual violence cases in Guinea. The film sample showcased snippets from each of the three women’s lives as they embrace the moniker “Big Mouths” (originating from a television show Yéro Bah participated in called Les Grandes Gueules, or The Big Mouths in French). Dave said they aim to document and explore the process of “pushing forms of testimony beyond the courts, that speak to the law, but also beyond the law,”as envisioned by these three women.
Dr. Fatou Niang described the film as “hypnotic” in its dreamlike portrayal of Conakry, evident in the long, meandering shots that avoid traditional narrative structure. Donovan mentioned that they wanted “the city of Conakry to speak for itself,” influencing both the removal of narrative and the audio-visual style. The preview was rich with diegetic sound and candid images of the people of Conakry as they navigated their communities.
The event concluded with a Q&A session where Dave and Donovan answered questions about sound in the film, what it was like filming in Guinea, and how they were given access to courtrooms. One audience member asked what the plans for a soundtrack would look like. Dave, who currently teaches a class called The Sound of Film, spoke on how she and Donovan are leaning away from traditional Guinean chamber music, and towards sparse audio of virtuosic musicians noodling on traditional instruments, allowing the silence to speak louder than a busy score.More can be found about the Sound Justice Lab, Technologies of Silence, and Big Mouth at soundjusticelab.org.
