the last

of the nightingales

coming soon

Among the many tragedies of extinction, there is one least spoken about. One that is easily taken for granted. It is the loss of sound; the loss of the song of life. Can you imagine a silent Earth?

Crew

Masha Karpoukhina

Director

Hassan Said

Producer

Rose Wyatt

Producer

Justin LaFleur

Cinematographer

Vivian Li

1st Assistant Camera

John Boo

Sound

Marco Mejia

ANIMATOR

Irina Kivolya

Research Producer

This is the story of sound. Everything in the universe produces a unique acoustic signature called a soundscape. From Arctic ice sheets, to viruses, from planets to human beings. Sound is part of our culture, our heritage and an often overlooked part of all ecosystems on Earth. It is the music of the living world, but as we lose natural habitats all across the globe, we also lose its soundscapes.

This film centers around the life work of Bernie Krause, a legend in the world of acoustics and soundscape ecology. His career began in Hollywood in the 1960s where he took part in creating music and foley for iconic films such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "Apocalypse Now". Together with his college friend Paul Beaver, they introduced synthesizers to the world of pop music and film and were among the earliest pioneers of electronic music.

In the 1970's, Bernie chose to leave his promising music career to focus on what would become the great work of his life. He began recording the unique acoustic signatures of wild habitats around the globe, from the whales in the Pacific to the dawn choruses of forests and jungles across continents, to the coral reefs near Fiji, to orangutans in Borneo. To date, Bernie has recorded over 1200 individual habitats among his collection of over 50,000 individual recordings (his collection is now the largest collection of wilderness sounds in the world that spans decades of time). He is one of the principal founders of Soundscape Ecology. He helped develop sound recording techniques, acoustic terminology and language that we use today to record entire wild habitats (as opposed to individual sounds of animals). This is used to scientifically monitor the health or degradation of ecosystems.

This film is an intimate journey through the life work of Bernie Krause. It is a coming to terms with extinction of soundscapes that cannot be saved because of climate change, but it is also a stand for life that remains. These dying places contain our biological & cultural heritage, a wealth of knowledge and so much beauty. As we look upon them, we can muster the courage to look into the face of the storm and perhaps create a vision that is beyond loss.

“A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening.”

Bernie KrausE

Director’s Statement

Masha Karpoukhina

"It is only by embracing this crisis [climate change] in all of its mind-bending complexity that we can find the will and the incentive to change ourselves and our world." - Daniel Pinchbeck, "How Soon Is Now".

The magnitude of loss that we will experience in the next few decades is profound. My 18-year-old son will be living in a world where water & food security will become a luxury. Familiar creatures like wolves, lions, and rhinoceros will survive only in movies and fictional tales and the coastal cities will settle into the deep. Millions of people worldwide will become climate refugees that will reshape nations, international law, and life as we know it, all while capitalism, greed, profiteering, and isolationism rears its ugly head and seems stronger than ever.

The idea for this series of films about the places and cultures we can no longer save, came from almost unbearable grief, but as we began the arduous task of putting the stories together, researching, and actually talking with our subjects - instead, what emerged was a sense of agency and deep connection. What can we learn from a soundscape that has fallen silent, or the Dinka culture of husbandry on the verge of being extinguished, or a lone man who stewards an Arctic Island where polar bears found their final refuge and are losing the fight with survival year after year? These films are intimate and deeply personal portraits of people who are losing the things they love most. It is through their urgency, their connection, their grief, their action, that we are able to achieve more than a love letter or a documentation of loss, but the possibility of a world that works for ALL OF US!

Producer’s Statement

Hassan Said

“Into That Good Night…The Last of the Nightingales” is not only a film but a testament to our current reality and our future on this planet. The beauty of the motion picture is that instead of focusing on broad strokes of statistics and bigger political spectrums, it guides us through very intimate perspectives of how climate change has impacted some of the most amazing people in a very personal and perhaps dire way.

Bernie Krause is a national treasure, a legend, and a passionate naturalist, who dedicated his life to raising awareness of the importance of sound. Bernie’s archives have benefited not only the artist, the audience member, the sound aficionado, but also the scientist, the ecologist, the statistician by offering new, more accurate ways of understanding our changing world. By opening the realm that is beyond vision, he touches upon our childish curiosities, our humanity, and ultimately our interconnectedness to the natural world through the symphony of life that we are undeniably a part of.

Our films aim to illuminate the aspects of climate change we rarely think about, like the magnificent soundscapes that we take for granted. The voices of people like Bernie can bring needed clarity and compassion. If we can stop and listen, perhaps there is hope.

Producer’s Statement

Rose Wyatt

There has never been a better time for this story to be shared.

Bernie's work over many decades and this film project point us toward all of the right questions for our day and age of great reckoning. As we take account, we are committing to being exactly where we are, and to recognize the harm that has been done in order to plot our next step. This is good and worthy work, and not for the faint of heart.

Bernie's work with soundscapes has become ever more relevant and significant as we hurdle into the 6th great extinction and experience massive global consequences, including rising temperatures, natural disasters, and a species die-off in an order of magnitude never before seen in human history. Bernie's work contrasts and reflects how we as humans orient ourselves to the world. We privilege our sight, and our might, depending on our senses to give us dominance and control over the world... but what happens if we actually "shut up and listen"? Who do we become at that moment? What possibilities of being are present? What paths open to us? Through my work with Masha, Bernie, and the crew for "Into That Good Night", I’ve learned that the questions that come from listening are the most important of all.

When we tune in to the “natural world,” the greater something, everything that is more than humanity, intimate realities that are not just ours are revealed. We begin to understand who we are, what we are, and who we can become.

I hope those who watch this film will feel permission to take a breath, cultivate their own relationship to the natural world through listening, and feel invited to explore the depths that await them. This has been a work of great dedication and great love, and I feel privileged to be a part of it.

Rose Wyatt is a producer, artist, and environmentalist who values the natural world and all of the species in it. She is fascinated with the myriad of ways humans conceptualize "home" and value their relationship with the planet. She is obsessed with good art, collaborative models of action, community strength, movement building, and transformation. She currently names the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia her "home."