Filmmaker Catalina Alvarez infuses unusual techniques that mirror the uniqueness of her niche subjects in the documentary Sound Spring. Unconventional in its production yet traditional in intention, Sound Spring is a love letter to the small town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. The film makes its World Premiere at the 2025 Cleveland International Film Festival.

An Oral History of a Town, Narrated by its Residents

The story of Sound Spring unfolds over a series of eight vignettes. Within each sequence, residents give thoughtful interviews about their lives in Yellow Springs. The history of the town is explored through archival photos and verbal anecdotes from Ohioans of various generations. Most of the vignettes are intentionally surreal, examples include a breakdancer who speaks while posing during a challenging upside-down dance move. Another moment shows a young woman rollerblading and an older woman working out with weights. While the delivery of the message may be comical, the weight of their words is to be taken seriously. Through interviews, we learn of the historical importance of Yellow Springs. This includes ancestors’ settlements after slavery, Antioch College, Ohio’s Trail of Tears, and the unexpected relationship with Coretta Scott King.

Creative Liberties (Mostly) Pay Off

Director Catalina Alvarez crafts clever ways to reinvigorate the traditional documentary formula. The most noticeable and impactful method is through the sound. The focus is primarily on the audio because these vignettes are all re-stagings of the subjects’ previous audio interviews. Alvarez gets meta by having them perform their own previously recorded media.

In one vignette, a DJ’s interview is set to a lo-fi hip-hop drum track with every few words getting remixed. Another vignette uses voice manipulation across two interviews, where the original speakers’ voices are dubbed by another person. These manipulations add an exciting element to a niche subject that could have been considered monotonous due to its hyper-specificity. The film’s misstep comes from the creative decision to have overlapping dialogue. This effect results in muddying the interview’s sentiment and made me wonder if I was having technical issues.

Takeaway

The experimental documentary genre is continuously pushing boundaries and Sound Spring is a welcomed new entry. Catalina Alvarez boldly shows what’s possible in this art form, and while not every move she makes pays off, the risk alone is worth championing.