Sardinia’s Melodies Infuse Film

Speak, Stone begins with a haunting chant-like melody as the camera of Jacob Richman ’03 pans from an ancient Italian cityscape to a single stone, clothesline and church. Richman’s video, the product of a summer spent researching Sardinian folk singing, is a meditation on harmony. And harmony exists on many levels in the short, pastoral video.

Richman, a senior joint concentrator in music and visual and environmental studies, showcases the Sardinian folk sound. Sung only by men of the town of Bitti, the music is a mixture of throaty and nasal sounds. “It is quite possibly the oldest type of polyphony,” says Richman, who was introduced to the music and was then able to research it directly in Italy through a Radcliffe research grant.

Richman weaves the coexisting opposites of ancient landscape and music together with images of young people socializing in the city’s streets, bars and gelaterias. The ancient Italian city is contrasted with the bustle and chatter of human life. The film is beautiful and transporting. At Arts First, Richman will show Dialogue, a short film on a single actor’s movement through changing vistas.

—Richman’s films will screen at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Carpenter Center, Room B04.