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Eve-Marie Bouché (Paris, France) At first, she was a dramatic author, then she started writing texts for radio dramas (Radio France). But when she learned how to edit sounds, it was an epiphany, the discovery of another form of writing. She can’t stop any more!
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Emptiness, dust all around, everything’s in disorder… from an empty, dilapidated church Piotr speaks about the harm done to him by a priest.
By agnieszka czyżewska jacquemet for Polish Radio Lublin (2021)
In search of justice – a whisper can be louder than a shout; it stays in the heart and mind forever.
This programme explores issues around child sexual abuse and contains content that listeners may find distressing.
agnieszka czyżewska jacquemet – the executive producer/editor/author – has been working in Polish Radio at the Regional Broadcasting Station Radio Lublin S.A. since 1996. She is still amazed at the world and she approaches each story with curiosity and humility. She is convinced that human beings give soul and body to all disasters, wars, political decisions and social issues. A drop reflects the ocean. Co-founder and board member of the Audionomia Foundation.
She is the winner of the Silver Medal URTI/UNESCO 2022, Prix Europa 2019 – Special Commendations 2016 and 2021, Prix Bohemia 2017 and Grand Press Radio 2015 amongst others.
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An unsettling portrait of snipers in the midst of the war in Bosnia in 1992.
By Stephen Schwartz for DR (19th December 1992)
Familiar surroundings transform and friends and acquaintances turn into enemies.
Contains content that listeners may find distressing.
Sniper was the winner of the 1993 Prix Italia for Documentary.
In the transcript for the Prix Italia the producers described the process of making this feature –
“While researching Sniper, Stephen Schwartz discovered that while plenty of people talked aboutsnipers, very few had actually talked to a sniper. So he got in touch with a colleague, Boro Kontic, in Sarajevo via the EBU satellite, which was the only secure line into the radio station in Sarajevo, and asked him to do the interviews with the snipers. When the tapes were ready they were smuggled out by an Irish TV man, who mailed them from Frankfurt during a stop-over. Much of the live sound in this programme was taken from TV coverage of the war in Sarajevo. The sounds were then processed digitally – like the rest of the programme.”
Directed by Stephen Schwartz
Recordings in Sarajevo by Boro Kontic
Sound by Frank Lindeskov
Translation by Jonathan Sydenham
Stephen Schwartz was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1940, but moved to Denmark from 1961. He died in 2013. His programmes include ‘We People’ – a feature series from 1964 to 1979 – The Mind’s Eye (winner of the Prix Italia, 1982), Notes from a City Dump, The Amber Gatherer, Clouds in Flight and The Night Watchman – the documentary where he pioneered his landmark interview technique known as the ‘moments interview’ or the ‘full Schwartz’. You can learn more about it here.
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An organist opens up the sound of silence.
By Phoebe McIndoe and Marta Medvešek (2023)
Made in 1929 to accompany silent movies, with 913 pipes and 66 registers, it was the biggest cinema organ in Germany.
But the organ’s grandeur wasn’t celebrated for long. Soon after its construction, sound film took over and the Babylon’s instrument became superfluous. Now, almost a century later and thanks to a dedicated team, Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte has become a haven for lovers of silent film.
But it takes more than outdated technical equipment to experience this fading art in an authentic way. It requires quick fingers and the ability to improvise in real-time with a myriad of keys and buttons. A rare skill – and one that Babylon has found in the organist Anna Vavilkina.
Featuring Timothy Grossman, managing director of Babylon, and the organist Anna Vavilkina. Recorded in November 2018.
Phoebe McIndoe and Marta Medvešek are audio producers from the UK and Croatia, living and working in Berlin. They love producing creative, cutting-edge documentaries as well as poetic sound meditations. Most of all, they like to play. They say that collaborating helps them remove the pressure and allows them to have fun in the process.
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A prelude into a world where language and magic are one.
By Axel Kacoutié (2023)
This was created as part of the audio artist Axel Kacoutié’s live In The Dark event – an evening of magical audio, conjuring aural visions to transport you through time, and space, returning you back to yourself and the world.
It was heard before their documentary A Mother Tongue, which can be listened to – with subtitles – here.
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Three children care for their mother as her words start to fall away.
By Aurélia Balboni (2015)
‘My Mother’s Words’ (‘Les Mots de Ma Mère’) tells the everyday life of a woman who loses her words. By her side, her three children, each in their own way, watch over her, set the tempo and organise her daily life. To move her out of the house she has lived in for 40 years would break her down. She carries inside her layers of a story, of a territory. Her house, the barn, the little river, the trees are the last landmarks of a space which shrinks a little more everyday.
This feature won the 2016 ‘Archives de la parole’ Phonurgia Nova prize and received a Special Commendation at the Prix Europa in 2015.
Aurélia Balboni is an author, editor and producer of radio documentaries and fictions. She also teaches radio documentary in Belgium (IAD – Institut des Arts de Diffusion). She founded Cineke in 2014 to conduct workshops and produce films and radios with a group of independent authors – Sonia Ringoot, Nicolas François, Pascale Brischoux, Celia Dessardo. Her latest documentary “Brothers”, was co-directed with Nicolas François.
‘My Mother’s Words’ features the voices of Françoise Gibert, Florence and Raphaël Balboni, Ismaël Gomih and Laurence Courtois.
Editing: Mathieu Haessler, Christophe Rault, Aurélia Balboni. Sound editing: Philippe Charbonnel With the support of the radio creation support fund of the Wallonia-Brussels federation and the « Du côté des ondes » programme fund of the RTBF.
In co-production and with the help of the creative radio workshop and Cinétroupe asbl
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A grandfather and granddaughter explore a silence in their family history.
By Max-Lena Vanden Eynde (2022)
Max-Lena Vanden Eynde’s grandfather grew up in a family of fifteen children. In 1940, the two eldest sons – Pol and Louis – were called up as reserve recruits. Only one of the two brothers returned home after the war. Any clue to Louis is lost. Together with the third son – her grandfather – Max-Lena goes looking for him. Since his disappearance, the family has been silent. His name is not spoken, nor the grief surrounding it.
Credits:
Max-Lena Vanden Eynde: researcher, interviewer, editor
Brecht Mertens: music composer
Wederik De Backer: editor-in-chief
Simon Kremar: mixer
Pieter Serrien and Geert Lecompte: historical researchers
Max-Lena Vanden Eynde is a radio documentary maker. She works as a maker and editor-in-chief for the production house The Podcast Planet. You can follow her work on her personal Instagram as well as The Podcast Planet.
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A homage to the Giallo film genre, set within the True Crime podcasting scene.
By Ross Sutherland for Imaginary Advice (2022)
Story by Ross Sutherland
Translated by Cristina Marras (cristinamarras.com)
Performed by Cristina Marras and Ross Sutherland Additional voice acting by Andrea de’Cesco, Gianfranco Bitti, Fausta Laddomada
Original music by Jeremy Warmsley (jeremywarmsley.com)
Produced by Ross Sutherland
Consider supporting Imaginary Advice! Make a monthly donation: www.patreon.com/rossgsutherland
Make a one-off donation: buymeacoffee.com/imaginaryadvice
For further listening on a similar theme, listen to Cristina’s story “Games We Play in the Dark”: https://soundcloud.com/kommunic8/explorations-on-darkness-1-games-we-play-in-the-dark
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An audio feature for the animal world
By Saška Rakef, Tina Kozin, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, Matjaž Miklič and Pia Brezavšcek (2021)
Plunge into the sonic landscape of the jackal, as they stalk around a human settlement. Listen as voices from the Anthropocene emerge from busted radios, talking into the night.
Directed by Saška Rakef
Script by Saška Rakef and Tina Kozin
Music by Bojana Šaljić Podešva
Sound Design by Matjaž Miklič
Dramaturgy by Pia Brezavšček
Field recording, ambience and effects by Matjaž Miklič and Martin Florjančič
Expert collaborator: Petra Veber
Thanks to Sebastijan Lamut, MSc; Miha Krofl, ScD and Tomaž Grušovnik, PhD
Produced by RTV Slovenia, Radio Slovenia, Program Ars and Društvo Za Umetnost Avgus, Ljubljana
