WFF '23: The Tuba Thieves

As I settled into Alison O'Daniel's The Tuba Thieves, I realized that narrative wasn't primary here. Instead, she seemed keen on exploring the experiences of the deaf and hard of hearing in an impressionistic kind of way, with a patchwork of threads. For a short time, I sat there feeling that the movie's assemblage of events not all directly related seemed familiar. There was a novel that worked in this way - presenting various story lines and throwing in a lot of unrelated bits to add color, to capture a greater experience than a simple linear narrative.

It finally dawned on me that I was thinking of John Dos Passos' U.S.A. Trilogy.

Dos Passos weaved news headlines, biographies of powerful figures of the early 20th century, and some stream of consciousness writing into larger narratives depicting the lives of the novels' characters. O'Daniel does something similar here.

The movie begins with the theft of tubas. Between 2011-2013 someone or a group of someones really did steal tubas from Los Angeles area schools. This introduces us to the notion of the absence of sound. But the movie is not about the thieves or attempts to stop them. Instead we meet Nyke, a deaf woman who plays the drums and Geovanny, a hearing kid who plays in his school's marching band.

We learn about them and their lives and get a sense of what sound and hearing means to them. Nyke is married and we meet her husband as well as her father. Geovanny has a girlfriend. They each get a tarot reading. They each navigate the world missing a sound or sound altogether. But, as Geovanny hangs out with friends, and Nyke prepares for motherhood, O'Daniel weaves in the Los Angeles soundscape. There is the din of helicopters and airplanes as well as a diversion into how one neighborhood was demolished to make way for the expansion of the Los Angeles airport.

Trail cams capture the wild denizens of the mountains around L.A. and before long we cut to TV news footage of wildfires in the area. Brief scenes of the tuba thieves in action are scattered throughout and there is a trio of historical reenactments related to music: the premiere of John Cage’s 4’33” in 1952, a punk band playing at the Deaf Club in 1979, a music venue in San Francisco, and a surprise Prince concert in 1984 at the Deaf University Gallaudet.

The Tuba Thieves is not simply a portrait of people who have impaired hearing. Rather it is an invitation to consider sound, in its presence and its absence. There are conversations with no speech, music with no notes. Airplanes pound working class neighborhoods with the deafening roar of engines yet there are also scenes where the ambient sound is simply a breeze.

Audience members at the screening were given a balloon. As we held it, we could feel it vibrate to the movie's soundtrack. It was an ingenious way to further broaden the concept of hearing.

The Tuba Thieves has a lot going on stylistically and I really enjoyed taking it all in and thinking about sound, my hearing, which I take for granted, and what it must be like to have a hearing impairment.