Sound Of My Voice

It’s my pleasure to introduce today’s guest, my brother and frequent creative partner, Lucius Patenaude! He‘s the one who introduced me to Sound Of My Voice, a film that will forever influence the tone of our creative work. Lucius is a filmmaker based in Nashville (luciuspatenaude.com if you’re curious). You can also check out his ongoing Ekphrasis project, pairing his film photography with his surreal spiritual sci-fi and/or mythological vignettes. But for now, here’s Sound Of My Voice!

I first saw Sound Of My Voice while attending a film school exchange program in L.A. Our professor told us he was going to show the class an indie movie. He caught the obscure feature during its limited release and watched it twice the same day. He told us that at the end, he would tell us two words which would flip what we had just seen on its head.

The movie was good but small. Shot on inexpensive digital cameras, at cheap locations, with few characters. An encouraging film as a filmmaker. The story was engaging, and it was shot with hardly any money. A shining example of indie filmmaking. But when it concluded, I still did not see what grabbed the professor. Though well made, it felt too familiar.

Then he spoke, “Last Supper.” And the scope of what I had just seen exploded past the frame of the film. A conceit so massive woven into a deceptively standard narrative. They didn’t even try to hide it, you were just too preoccupied with the ordinary.

Sound of My Voice endures as my favorite film because it taught me that big stories don’t need big movies. You don’t need epic space battles to deliver a profound moment. You don’t need a massive cast of household names to touch the audience’s heart. That flash is irrelevant. You can tell a tale of a man in a field and really be talking about the nature of the universe. And those are the stories I want to write.