In '32 Sounds,' NYC filmmaker Sam Green explores how what we hear shapes how we feel

A new documentary called “32 Sounds” opens today at Film Forum, and there’s almost nothing conventional about it. New York filmmaker Sam Green says he knew from the start how his film, about sound and how it affects us, was going to end – and then had to work out how he’d get to that point. While watching films in public is a communal experience, some screenings of the documentary involve audience members cocooned in headphones, with the sound being mixed live in the theater.

And, breaking the most basic rule of filmmaking, at various points Green invites you not to watch, but to close your eyes and just listen.

The film isn’t just about sound – it’s about what sounds can mean.

“If you see a photo of somebody you’ve known, who you’ve loved, and is gone, it can move you, and it can remind you of the person,” Green said. “But if you hear their voice, it’s something different altogether.”