The Film We Can't See

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

The Film We Can't See Podcast

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: History

The Film We Can See Standard

Adam Zmith listens to some lost sound recordings from 1930.

Adam Zmith has found some lost sound recordings from 1930. As he listens to this archive of intriguing noises, he imagines a film that could have changed the world.

The Film We Can't See: 1. Sixteen Names and a Box of Sounds

1. Sixteen Names and a Box of Sounds

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Film We Can't See, 1. Sixteen Names and a Box of Sounds

An unexpected call leads Adam Zmith into an old cinema to rediscover a lost sound archive

Adam Zmith is looking for a story, when the forgotten actor Anton Blake Horowitz asks him to investigate some lost sounds from 1930

When a meandering phone call from a forgotten actor called Anton Blake Horowitz leads Adam Zmith into an old cinema, he rediscovers a box of old sound recordings. They’re labelled Eisenstein Project, possibly after Sergei Eisenstein, pioneer of cinema in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. It’s perfect for Adam, a writer and podcast producer who is looking for a story to work on — and pitching to the BBC for a new series.

Adam meets sound expert Aleks Kolkowski who helps to retrieve the sounds from the old records. He teams up with So Mayer, a writer and researcher who explains more about Eisenstein. He even meets the veteran film director Sally Potter, who visited Eisenstein’s apartment and has been inspired by his work in making her films such as Orlando from 1992.

Perhaps these lost records are the sound tests for a film that Eisenstein was preparing to make in 1930? Adam returns to Anton, the actor who set him off on this journey — and Anton hears something in the old sounds that Adam didn’t...

Credits 
Written, produced and edited by Adam Zmith
With story by So Mayer and Adam Zmith
Starring Anton Blake Horowitz
Music by Courtney Pine
Assistant Producers – Tash Walker and Shivani Dave
Researcher — So Mayer
Audio consultant – David Pye
Artwork by Danny Crossley
Production Mentors – Caroline Steel and Andy King
Executive Producers – Khaliq Meer and Leanne Alie
Commissioned for BBC Sounds Audio Lab by Khaliq Meer

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The Film We Can't See

1. Sixteen Names and a Box of Sounds

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