Experiencing Interruptions?

Coastal Fire: A Common Diary

Views are my own, but I'm far from alone.

***Global Music Award winning soundtrack released on Bandcamp 11/5/19 (election day) - available at punchbeam.bandcamp.com

"Coastal Fire - A Common Diary" depicts via chamber music the emotional fallout from the 2016 US presidential election on a personal and societal level. Documentary footage and dreamlike imagery combine to capture the zeitgeist of a population teetering constantly on the edge of revulsion and resolve.

*** LIVE performance of the score available within reasonable travel distance from Seattle if given sufficient notice and compensation for 7-piece chamber orchestra

*** Self-contained <5minute segments available (see marked divisions) upon request with end credits added 1. Suspended Ceiling; 2. Pastore; 3. Towering Gilt; 4. Largo; 5. Winter Camp; 6. Fugue; and 7. Hailing, It's Mourning

*** "I love the music and film. Terrific work. Would it help to have some kind of quote from me?" - VIP music and film critic

*** "The music score is brilliant... The concept of this documentary is brave..." - Utah Film Festival and Awards

*** Features ledger artwork by Oglala Lakota artist P. Joel Pulliam

  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Director
    Spectratta
  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Producer
    Spectratta
  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Composer
    Spectratta
  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Cinematographer
    Spectratta
  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Editor
    Spectratta
  • Steve Bryant
    Session Musicians
  • Rachael Pearson
    Session Musicians
  • SueJane Bryant
    Session Musicians
  • Charles Jacot
    Session Musicians
  • Joe Kaufman
    Session Musicians
  • Brian Monroney
    Session Musicians
  • Steve Turnidge
    Mastering
  • Susan Maughlin Wood
    Mixing
    Spectratta
  • P. Joel Pulliam
    Featured Ledger Art
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Music Video, Short, Other
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 20 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Global Music Awards
    La Jolla
    United States
    Original Score
  • Global Music Awards
    La Jolla
    United States
    Listener Impact Content/Message Delivery
  • ALT Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    Semi-Finalist: Short Docs
  • McMinnville Short Film Festival
    McMinnville
    United States
    February 23, 2020
    Oregon Premiere
    Official Selection: "Suspended Ceiling"
  • New York Cinematography Awards
    New York
    United States
    SemiFinalist: Best Original Score
  • Mindfield Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Platinum Award: Best Music Video
  • Mindfield Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Diamond Award: Best Original Score
  • IndieX Fest
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Award Nominee: Editing
  • European Cinematography Awards
    Amsterdam
    Netherlands
    Best Experimental Film
  • Independent Shorts Awards
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Finalist
  • Post Alley Film Festival
    Seattle
    United States
    March 28, 2020
    Official Selection: "Winter Camp" plus chapters during seating
  • Mindfield Film Festival
    Albuquerque
    United States
    Gold Award: Best Music Video
  • Mindfield Film Festival
    Albuquerque
    United States
    Platinum Award: Best Original Score
  • Vegas Movie Awards
    Las Vegas
    United States
    Best Original Score
  • Central States Indie Fan Film Fest

    Best Original Soundtrack over 20 mins
  • Refugees Welcome Film Fest
    Berlin
    Germany
    Official Selection
  • Pune Short Film Festival
    Pune
    India
    Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • Select Services Film Inc.
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Susan Maughlin Wood

Susan Maughlin Wood of Punchbeam Music, LLC is a composer working countercultural chamber music into film, apps, and other media. Her award-winning productions including “Spectratta” (described as Bartok meets Hanna-Barbera) and “Coastal Fire: A Common Diary” celebrate neurodiversity and social justice, spotlighting the need for emotional resilience within our shared political climate. She holds a Master of Music in Film Composition from the Pacific NW Film Scoring Program at SFI, and has served as both Past President and Vice President on the Board of the Seattle Composers Alliance. Susan has engaged as a panelist at SPU and SIFF, and has presented a film scoring multimedia lecture at Centralia College. She has created soundscapes for the story reading app Novel Effect, created electronic and acoustic interstitial music for choral concert Embracing the Journey, and continuously develops varied passion projects. website: http://www.punchbeam.com

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

How loud must the alarm be? The 2016 election caught far too many of us by surprise. In my case, while wrapping up a circuit of newcomer film festival success and preparing to switch into distribution mode for “Spectratta," the night of the 2016 US presidential election was like an electromagnetic force that instantly smashed everything to the ground, leaving smoking craters where creative projects and the will to interact with the world had been. Overwhelmed with shock and grief and unable to work, I retreated into the language of chamber music to find some sense and healing. The resulting “Coastal Fire Suite” was pure music therapy and clearly the right path, but it needed to go further.

Throughout the next three years of online and (new to me) street activism, I collected footage from my travels and imagery from my nightmares to bring visual form to the painful evolutionary path of our identity as a country, and our struggle to even recognize the need to find any white racial identity outside of the horrors of the supremacy structure on which it is built.

Disbelief, fear, disgust, grief, resentment, resolve and empathy are steps along a circular journey. Not quite five stages of grief... really more like seven stages of WTF. Coming up now on the next most critical election cycle of our times, I offer from the West Coast a funeral wake, a validation, a confessional and a battle hymn seeking the way forward.