X
- 2024
- Independent Lens
- 1 h 32 m
- 2024
- Independent Lens
- 1 h 32 m
Summary From 2011 to 2013, tubas were stolen from Los Angeles high schools. This is not a story about thieves or missing tubas. Instead, it asks what it means to listen.
Directed By: Alison O'Daniel
Written By: Alison O'Daniel
- 2024
- Independent Lens
- 1 h 32 m
- 2024
- Independent Lens
- 1 h 32 m
The Tuba Thieves
77
2.8
Summary From 2011 to 2013, tubas were stolen from Los Angeles high schools. This is not a story about thieves or missing tubas. Instead, it asks what it means to listen.
Directed By: Alison O'Daniel
Written By: Alison O'Daniel
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
77
83% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
17% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
77
83% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
17% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Its connective tissue is an idea, an exploration, and it’s designed to be more absorbed than understood. But for the patient audience, it’s richly illuminating.
The Tuba Thieves is about embracing uncertainty and misunderstanding — something d/Deaf/hard-of-hearing people do every day. In fact, the film’s entire genesis was intended as a large-scale “game of telephone,” deliberately seeking out disorder and unexpected end products.
Without the rigidness of a concrete story, O’Daniel is able to command the medium in an invigorating manner. Though it requires that audiences surrender to its unconventional tactics, the reward is the opportunity to rediscover the familiar with a fresh set of eyes and ears.
Through its experimental structure, The Tuba Thieves defies convention, creating a challenging experience that forces us to listen without an overarching narrative imposing some sense of order or the authority of a documentary filmmaker.
The Tuba Thieves doesn’t quite have the mastery of the collage form you’ll find in somewhat similar experiments like Leviathan or Cameraperson, so that some of its ideas and images can feel scattershot, yet it undeniably subverts the tools of cinema in a uniquely compelling way.
The effort deserves a nod, but the execution stumbles, falls, and, whether intentional or not, can’t be saved.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
2.8
25% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
75% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 4 User Ratings
2.8
25% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
75% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company
Chicken And Egg Pictures,
Facet,
Louverture Films,
Open Caption
Release Date Mar 15, 2024
Duration 1 h 32 m
Genres
Awards
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Nominations
Athens International Film and Video Festival, Ohio, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Thin Line Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination