Writer-director Alison O’Daniel’s The Tuba Thieves is inspired by a spate of thefts from Los Angeles-area high school marching bands between 2011 and 2013, though the details surrounding the incidents are only acknowledged in occasional title cards. O’Daniel instead uses the real-life tuba thefts as a springboard to explore, and in artistically fertile ways, how the removal of an integral part of a structure affects the larger whole.
The Tuba Thieves is specifically concerned with the experiences of being a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community. O’Daniel, herself a member of that community, distorts and manipulates image and audio throughout the film, sometimes even dropping out the latter, to fascinatingly reflect the disorientation that one can experience with the loss of hearing.
O’Daniel’s approach to narrative isn’t so much casual as it is coolly ambivalent. There’s a wisp of a plot, and...
The Tuba Thieves is specifically concerned with the experiences of being a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community. O’Daniel, herself a member of that community, distorts and manipulates image and audio throughout the film, sometimes even dropping out the latter, to fascinatingly reflect the disorientation that one can experience with the loss of hearing.
O’Daniel’s approach to narrative isn’t so much casual as it is coolly ambivalent. There’s a wisp of a plot, and...
- 3/9/2024
- by Wes Greene
- Slant Magazine
The material details of the musical instrument larcenies that took place across high schools in south Los Angeles between 2011 and 2013 don’t transpire in filmmaker Alison O’Daniel’s audaciously experimental “The Tuba Thieves.” There’s no thorough investigation into who committed the thefts and why. Instead, she takes a more symbolic approach to look at how the events altered the sonic landscape of the players’ lives and of the places they inhabit. It wouldn’t be a stretch to describe it as an audiovisual anthropological study.
If there’s an actual protagonist in this formally adventurous effort, it’s the synesthetic dance between images and sound (or silence) and how these interactions inform our perception of the world, depending on whether you are a hearing person, someone hard-of-hearing or a deaf individual. These parallel experiences converge in a sensorial examination of Los Angeles built from a lyrically edited barrage of moments.
If there’s an actual protagonist in this formally adventurous effort, it’s the synesthetic dance between images and sound (or silence) and how these interactions inform our perception of the world, depending on whether you are a hearing person, someone hard-of-hearing or a deaf individual. These parallel experiences converge in a sensorial examination of Los Angeles built from a lyrically edited barrage of moments.
- 11/16/2023
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety Film + TV
“The Tuba Thieves” director Alison O’Daniel took inspiration for her feature film from a series of tuba thefts from local LA high schools that she heard about on the radio. But instead of investigating the questions of who the thieves were and where the tubas ended up, she decided to make a film about the impacted band students and directors. Motivated by curiosity of peoples’ experiences with sound, she focused on creating a listening project.
Manuel Castañeda, who plays himself in the film, was one of the first people she contacted about the project. Geovanny Marroquin, one of the main characters, and Aija Jones play themselves as Castañeda’s band students. She also enlisted Nyke (Nyeisha Prince) as a main character, with whom she had worked on a previous film, after remembering Nyke’s experience with drumming. 11 years later, the film premiered at Sundance 2023.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe, who plays fictional character Arcey in the film,...
Manuel Castañeda, who plays himself in the film, was one of the first people she contacted about the project. Geovanny Marroquin, one of the main characters, and Aija Jones play themselves as Castañeda’s band students. She also enlisted Nyke (Nyeisha Prince) as a main character, with whom she had worked on a previous film, after remembering Nyke’s experience with drumming. 11 years later, the film premiered at Sundance 2023.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe, who plays fictional character Arcey in the film,...
- 2/2/2023
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
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