In a landscape saturated with noise, the聽Listening Pitch has steadily emerged as a vital space for films that invite us into a conversation to engage with untold stories that open up new dialogues round what it means to really listen. Created through a visionary collaboration between Aesthetica and Audible, the initiative supports short documentaries that centre listening as both method and theme. In doing so, it has reshaped our understanding of how sound, silence and subtlety can drive storytelling. The programme champions projects that cut through spectacle to offer something more radical: the cinematic of the unheard.
Since its inception, the Listening Pitch has produced a slate of genre-defying work. These films have gone on to receive wide recognition, screening at the聽Sundance Film Festival,听SXSW, and receiving nominations for the聽IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary. Others have found digital homes on聽The Guardian, engaging global audiences. Each year, the selected filmmakers interrogate what it means to truly聽listen. The initiative remains dedicated to storytelling that emerges not from volume, but from attention.
In 2024, Liberty Smith’s聽Greensound聽portrayed a group of Welsh men who, after the closure of a steel plant, found solace in forest walks, highlighting nature’s role in healing. Ornella Mutoni’s聽The Things We Don’t Saydelved into intergenerational trauma stemming from the Rwandan genocide, showcasing young adults confronting their pasts in group therapy sessions. This poignant film was later acquired by Guardian Documentaries. In 2023, Meghan McDonough’s聽Old Lesbians聽documented the efforts of activist Arden Eversmeyer, who traveled across the USA recording oral histories of elderly lesbians, preserving a fading community’s legacy. Matthew Herbert’s聽Banana聽offered an auditory journey tracing the life of a banana from plantation to consumer, shedding light on the environmental and human costs of mass consumption.聽
The 2022 winners approached the theme of listening from diverse perspectives.聽Birdsong聽by Sparsh Ahuja and Omi Gupta explored the dying whistling traditions of the Hmong people in northern Laos. Jade Ang Jackman’s聽Speed of Sound聽provided a portrait of self-professed blind Olympic-winning skier Carina Edlinger. Ross McClean’s聽Echo聽told the story of a man who communicates via an intricate system of radios. In 2021, Jessi Gutch and Liz Jackson’s聽Blind as Beat portrayed Jackson’s journey from an ex-documentary filmmaker who used sight as a primary sense to someone who is visually impaired and relies on hearing.聽
Collectively, these films underscore the significance of listening in understanding diverse human experiences. By focusing on themes like environmental impact, historical preservation, and personal healing, they have resonated globally, prompting audiences to engage more deeply with the world around them. The Listening Pitch continues to champion stories that might otherwise remain unheard, fostering a more empathetic and informed global community. These are films that invite audiences to reconsider what they think they know, and to hear not only what is said, but what lingers in the gaps. Now in its fifth edition, the Listening Pitch continues its commitment to amplifying voices and stories too often marginalised.
Announcing the 2025 Listening Pitch Winners:
The 2025 Listening Pitch winners – Carin Leong, Cicely Hadman and Roberto Duque – were selected from a highly competitive international pool for their visionary approach to documentary filmmaking. Each of their films boldly explores the sonic dimensions of human experience. Carin Leong鈥檚聽Untitled Fetal Heartbeat Filmdissects the politically charged use of ultrasound audio in the US abortion debate, using experimental sound design to interrogate how machine-generated signals are turned into moral arguments. Cicely Hadman鈥檚 Stamp on My Threshold Like a Cowboy is a formally inventive portrait of queer intimacy, where the act of listening becomes method and metaphor as her ex-lover films her responding to questions about herself. Meanwhile, Roberto Duque鈥檚聽Voice Shift follows a transgender woman鈥檚 vocal therapy journey, expanding into a broader exploration of how voice shapes identity, survival and social perception. These works push the boundaries of auditory storytelling, continuing The Listening Pitch鈥檚 legacy of elevating underrepresented voices and redefining how audiences connect with documentary narratives.
Untitled Fetal Heartbeat Film
Director: Carin Leong
Singaporean documentarian聽Carin Leong聽brings a rigorous, poetic lens to the intersection of science, culture, and perception. Based in Brooklyn, Leong鈥檚 most recent film,听Sandcastles, was supported by Field of Vision and premiered at聽SXSW 2024; she was also named one of聽Filmmaker Magazine鈥檚 25 Faces of Independent Film. Her work has appeared in Scientific American,听Hakai Magazine, 补苍诲听The Atlantic.
滨苍听Untitled Fetal Heartbeat Film, Leong dissects the mythologised sound of the so-called 鈥渇etal heartbeat鈥 – a manufactured audio signal that has been emotionally and politically weaponised in the US abortion debate. With archival footage, experimental sound design, and a grainy sonographic visual palette, the film interrogates how ultrasound technology translates bodies into meaning. Leong’s essayistic documentary listens closely – not just to the science, but to the cultural narratives that have turned machine sounds into moral imperatives. What results is a meditation on truth, translation and the politics of perception.
Stamp on My Threshold Like a Cowboy
Director: Cicely Hadman
Stamp on My Threshold Like a Cowboy聽marks the nonfiction debut of聽Cicely Hadman, an accomplished screenwriter and story producer whose credits include聽Killing Eve,听Happy Valley听补苍诲听Renegade Nell. After years of sculpting storylines behind the scenes, Hadman returns to her roots in directing with a work that is raw, intimate and formally inventive.
In this audacious experiment, Hadman asks her former lover to film her while answering a series of deeply personal questions – all about Hadman herself. The filmmaker becomes the subject, the narrator becomes the cinematographer, and the act of listening becomes both method and metaphor. Set within the ephemeral terrain of past desire and shifting identity, the film exposes the recursive way we construct ourselves through others. Loosely structured, emotionally exacting, and formally reflexive,听Stamp on My Threshold聽is as fragile as it is fearless.
Voice Shift
Director: Roberto Duque
Roberto Duque聽is a UK-based producer and director whose editorial sensitivity and lived experience infuse his work with rare empathy. His credits span Channel 4, Hulu, CBS, and Discovery, and his previous short documentary聽Facing Evil聽was published by聽The Guardian Arts. His film聽The Writing鈥檚 on the Wall聽recently won the Audience Award 2025 at the Blind Walls Film Festival.
Voice Shift听蹿辞濒濒辞飞蝉听Carly, a transgender woman undergoing vocal therapy to align her external sound with her internal self. But the film doesn鈥檛 stop at technique. Through sonic experimentation and deeply personal storytelling, Duque expands the frame to include multiple trans voices, exploring the societal codes embedded in how we are heard. Is voice identity? Is it survival? Or a form of control? Blending poetic motifs with observational intimacy,听Voice Shift聽is a resonant, timely study in how identity is shaped by pitch, inflection, and public expectation – and how liberation begins with being heard on your own terms.
These three documentaries exemplify the heart of the Listening Pitch: films that explore listening not just as an act, but as an ethics. Whether examining the mistranslation of scientific sound, the gendered acoustics of survival, or the relational choreography of intimacy, each work underscores how listening can reshape what we know- and who we are. In an industry often driven by spectacle, the partnership between聽础别蝉迟丑别迟颈肠补听补苍诲听Audible affirms a different kind of commitment: to quieter stories, to rigorous enquiry, to truth. This is storytelling that doesn’t speak over – but listens beside. The Listening Pitch stands as a testament to the belief that through careful attention, we uncover what is most deeply human.
All three films will premiere at聽Aesthetica Film Festival听辞苍听8 November 2025. The full festival runs from 5-9 November in York, UK.聽Tickets coming soon. asff.co.uk聽
Words: Anna M眉ller
Image credits:
Image courtesy of Guillaume Lavrut. Model: Darius. 漏rockmenparis.
Film Still. Banana. Matthew Herbert (2023).
Film Still. Old Lesbian. Meghan McDonough (2023).
Film Still. Greensound. Liberty Smith (2024).
漏 Metin Ozer via Unsplash.
漏 Ryan Cuerden via Unsplash.
漏 Marek Piwnicki via Unsplash.
