MPSE Golden Reel Nomination
In February I was honored to be nominated by the Motion Picture Sound Editors Association for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Documentary for my work on Shirkers. I’m intensely proud of the sound editorial and mixing work that went into that film, and it was a tremendous honor to be nominated for best documentary sound by my peers.
American Factory Wins at Sundance and More
American Factory, directed by Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar, premiered at Sundance to rave reviews, and also picked up the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary.
It also won a trio of Best Documentary awards at the Sarasota, RiverRun, and Ashland Film Festivals.
The film has also played Full Frame, True/False, CPH:DOX, Doc 10 Chicago, the San Francisco Film Festival, Tribeca, Hot Docs, and many others.
The film was also bought by Netflix for distribution after its Sundance premiere and I am excited for the many festivals and screenings and audiences it has ahead!
The Seer and the Unseen Wins Award at San Francisco Film Festival Premiere
In March we wrapped the sound design and mix for Sara Dosa’s beautiful Icelandic documentary The Seer and the Unseen. I got to travel to Iceland back in September to record sounds of wind and nature, pounding storms on lava rocks, and almost imperceptible movements of grass blades, which we then threaded with essences of magic and stylization back in the studio to create a soundscape that was both sweeping and delicate.
The film premiered in April at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it received glowing reviews from the Hollywood Reporter, The Moveable Fest, and the Playlist, and won the Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Documentary.
Next the film travels to Toronto for Hot Docs.
Changing the Game to Premiere at Tribeca
The most recent film sound edit and mix that just wrapped was Michael Barnett’s documentary Changing the Game. It follows the stories of three champion high school transgender teens, and it was emotional to work on and powerful to create detailed immersive soundscapes for.
The film has its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival at the end of April.
Variety just released the first trailer, which can be watched here.
Shangri- LA Series for Showtime has Sneak Peek at SXSW
Next up I’m sound editing and mixing a 4-episode documentary series for Showtime about legendary music producer Rick Rubin called Shangri-La. Co-directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville and Jeff Malmberg, the project had a sneak peek at SXSW in March, where it showed a preview of one of the episodes.
Coverage of the event was written up in both IndieWire and Rolling Stone.
I can’t wait to dive into the show proper over the next couple months, ahead of its summer debut on Showtime, and I’ll post more here when it becomes available!
Other News Roundup
The Legend of Cocaine Island (formerly titled White Tide: The Legend of Culebra) premiered on Netflix to much audience delight, Twitter hilarity and amazing articles. The trailer for this real life documentary treasure hunt can be found here.
Fire on the Hill continues its festival tour, winning the Artistic Vision Award at the Big Sky Film Festival, and received a glowing review in the Hollywood Reporter.
I’m also happy to announce that both Bisbee ’17 and On Her Shoulders will be playing this season on PBS’s acclaimed and award-winning POV program.
Interviewed on the Art of Documentary Sound Design
And last but not least, earlier in the year I had the honor and pleasure of chatting with film critic Stephen Saito about the art of documentary film sound design, and the details of working on Shirkers, On Her Shoulders, and Bisbee ’17 last year.
The article can be found here: titled Our Favorites 2018: Lawrence Everson on Making Docs that Reverberate, and it was an absolute joy being able to discuss the detail of expressing story through sound design, and some of the novel approaches we took to the sound editorial and mix processes of those three films.
I’m a passionate and firm believer that documentary films are no less cinematic, stylized, immersive, and creative than their fiction counterparts and this is a philosophy that I bring to every project I am involved with. I loved being able to bring readers in behind the scenes and espouse a bit of my passions and beliefs on the subject. And I felt honored to be included in the best-of collection of 2018, and it was a joy to chat with Stephen about all things documentary audio.
Between the article and the Golden Reel nomination it was a good moment of reflection on past work, and a renewed sense of commitment to continue to push the creative art of sound design and mixing in nonfiction film.
I can’t wait for the projects ahead this Spring and Summer, and to share the next one of these studio updates!
