Sounds of Tomorrow

Filmed and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Sounds of Tomorrow is a documentary featuring ecology researchers with eco-acoustics careers. How can we explore and explain nature's hidden voices around us in our increasingly noisy world? Here we gain insight from professionals Jacob Job, Timothy Weaver, and Dr. Sharolyn Anderson.

  • Chloe Magdalene Smith
    Producer
  • Michael Cox
    Editor
  • Megan Blaney
    Videographer
  • Chloe Magdalene Smith
    Videographer
  • Michael Cox
    Sound Mixer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Environment, Nature
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 6, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of Denver
  • Denver
    United States
    June 8, 2023
    University of Denver
  • Bay Area Cinema
    Vallejo
    United States
    September 8, 2023
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • SOFA Film Festival
    Online
    Cyprus
    September 1, 2023
    Official Selection
Director Biography

Chloe was raised beneath magnolia trees in rural Arkansas and studied in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. She is a University of Denver Film Production and International Studies alum interested in environmental documentaries. She has worked on numerous projects for Audubon, The Nature Conservancy, and the International Rescue Committee in Denver for student projects. She has extensive skills as an editor and production assistant and produced her first short documentary film, “Sounds of Tomorrow,” focusing on the art of eco-acoustic recordings in the increasingly noisy state of Colorado. As a graduate, she works in freelance editing and cinematography for narrative, documentary, and commercial projects. She continues to learn and grow with her interest in environmental justice activism, reciprocal human relationships to the earth, and conservation methods that value human beings within nature.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This film was made as a senior capstone for my film production degree, which I received from the University of Denver in June 2023. The general theme for all senior capstone short documentaries was music. As a young adult and filmmaker, my concerns about our future stem from the climate crisis. I pitched an idea related to the environment and music that we can hear within it. Two classmates and I picked up the project and immensely enjoyed learning more about eco acoustics and sound within environments, a subject that we only knew surface level from our research. I have greatly appreciated learning about this subject and creating a short film to share our findings and the thoughts of the researchers, professors, and doctors we interviewed. Our film stood out at our first screening with other music documentaries, all of which were fast-paced and fit into the category more normally. However, I challenge the viewers of this student film to think of how we listen and what we listen to day to day. Being a more conscious human in our noisy world can better focus us on the greater task at hand, climate change, and how it will permanently change the way our world sounds.