The Art of Listening
As a documentary filmmaker, my job for the last 15 years has been to listen to people. When I did my first interviews, I listened badly. I listened only for the answers I wanted and I tried to steer the conversation in a direction I expected. Needless to say, my interviewee was uncomfortable and I got bad results.
It is a beginner’s mistake, based on not trusting the creative process. What if I don’t ask the right questions and therefore can’t use the responses in my film? What if they say things that don’t fit my story?
With time I realized that the most interesting responses were always the answers I didn’t expect.
When I started listening with curiosity and empathy, beautiful stories unfolded in front of me that touched my heart. I was interviewing everyday people, people who professed not to want to be interviewed, people I had just met on the street, men in barbershops and pride parades, along with corporate executives, politicians and artists.
I discovered, that no matter who I interviewed, my job was to listen.
In creating a documentary film, I had to work with the reality that I encountered, not the reality I wished to encounter.
The place of active listening is a sacred space. Whether you are listening to yourself, to others, to the environment around you, or to the world.
In Season 2 of my podcast, This Beautiful Shot is Not an Accident I interviewed artists and thinkers about how they use listening in their practices.
As I prepare to launch Season 3 which is about artist’s first solo show, I am reflecting back on how much I enjoyed listening to the contributors of Season 2. I just created a post-season trailer. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet, check out this short trailer.
Contributors to Season 2 include:
Yannis Adonio, choreographer, on listening well
Sara Shelton Mann, choreographer, on listening with intention
Márcio Kerber Canabarro, dancer, on being in awareness
Pamala Z, composer andperformer, on sculpting sound
Karine Bonneval, artist, on listening to plants
Mathieu Sylvestre, musician and noise artists, on escaping codes
Marion Ruault, musician, on listening to the self
Mathilde Ramadier, author, on listening to nature
Giò Di Sera, Artista Totale, on listening to the street
bi’bak, project space, research-based art practice, on migration narratives
And stay tuned for Season 3, launching at the end of March.