“Deafening: The Sense of Sound [Re]Verbed,” a video essay by Pavitra Sundar, associate professor of literature and director of the Cinema and Media Studies program, was included in the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound poll of “The best video essays of 2024.” This prestigious annual list gathers the best of videographic criticism from around the world.
In nominating the piece, Barbara Zecchi, an acclaimed video essayist and film scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, observed: “Pavitra Sundar’s video essay is a profound exploration of sound, hearing, and embodiment through the lens of Sound of Metal (2019). It redefines deafness as a method of inquiry, dismantling ableist assumptions while embracing the multisensory and relational nature of sonic experience.”
A revised version of “Deafening” is forthcoming in the Spring issue of the peer-reviewed journal of videographic criticism, [in]Transition.
