Imagine that you’re listening to a song. Suddenly, a blue fog curls into the depths of your mind's eye. Yellow dashes hang above and, when the notes fade out, they explode like fireworks.

For Sarah Kraning, this is reality. Since childhood, she has experienced sound-to-color synesthesia, where any sound triggers colorful, moving shapes. Affecting up to 5% of the population, synesthesia can manifest in various cross-sensory experiences, like smelling names or tasting numbers. Despite its prevalence, it only gained scientific recognition in the 1980s.

Motivated by years of being dismissed for her experiences and eager to explain what life is like for her, Sarah has spent her career translating her unique experience of sound through paintings like these:

Image: Sarah Kraning, Arch Theme (2023). Acrylic on canvas.

She regularly shares her artistic and personal journey on TikTok, where her audience has grown to over 600,000 followers. Sarah has also given a TED Talk and been featured on news platforms (see some here). Part of Sound & Color will document Sarah’s journey so far, following her success as an artist and advocate, and the challenges that got her there.

But the bulk of this film features an ambitious animation project. Lingering frustrations over the limitations of painting, social media advocacy and TED Talks to adequately illustrate Sarah’s synesthesia have motivated her to collaborate with the Sound & Color team and create the most accurate depiction of her synesthesia to date.

THE EXPERIMENT:

Sound & Color is a process-driven film centered around Sarah Kraning's synesthetic experiences. Our team will film a cinematic scene of Sarah walking through a studio against a black backdrop, while sounds and music trigger her synesthesia in interesting ways. For instance, a honking taxi cab might emit multiple shades of green squares, while laughter from friends could prompt an eruption of colorful swirls.

After the scene is shot and cut, we will film Sarah collaborating with an animator to bring her synesthetic experience to life, infusing the otherwise colorless scene with vibrant, 3D animations.

But why film the animation process instead of just showing the final product?

Incorporating the creation process into the film itself is crucial to driving home the difficulty of representing another person's mind. (We're following in the footsteps of other process-driven documentaries, like The Act of Killing, Procession, and It Runs in the Family.)

We aim to use Sarah's experience as a lens to explore synesthesia generally, while using the animation process to delve into broader themes like individual perception, neurodiversity, and the fundamental human urge to be understood

At its core, Sound & Color is a highly personal, visually striking journey into the true meaning of individual experience. By following Kraning, we will immerse ourselves into one person’s subjectivity and create something beautiful along the way.

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP:

Making an independent film takes a village, and there are hidden costs at every step of the way. Beyond compensating our talented crew for their time and expertise, expenses like studio rentals, production insurance, and high-quality camera and equipment rentals can quickly add up.

Your support will empower us to avoid cutting corners and invest in the resources needed to create a professional film that you'll be proud to see. Every contribution, big or small, gets us closer to that goal.

Your contribution will support:

Basic production costs (e.g., insurance, studio rentals, gear rentals)
Post-production needs like sound mixing and color grading
Festival submissions
Salaries for production & post-production staff, including: Director, Director of Photography (1) Producers (2), Social Media Manager, Animator, Composer, and Sound Mixer

Your donation is tax-deductible! Documentary Educational Resources, a registered 501(c)3, is our fiscal sponsor, making all donations tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law.

Can I mail a check?

Yes, you can send a paper check! Please make the check out to Documentary Educational Resources. Remember to write “Sound & Color film” in the memo line!

Mail to:

Documentary Educational Resources
108 Water Street 5A
Watertown, MA 02472

OUR TIMELINE:

Summer 2023: We began building our team and developing a close working relationship with artist Sarah Kraning. We also honed our development materials to design the story we want to tell, and began collecting footage for the film at Sarah's TED Talk. (image below)

Fall 2023: We formalized the project by securing fiscal sponsorship with Documentary Educational Resources (DER). As a result, all donations are tax-deductible!

Summer 2024: Once we raise sufficient funds, we’ll continue on to production.

Fall 2024: Finish filming; edit footage

Spring 2025: Target release date

Image: Sarah Kraning. Detail shot of “Time” by Hans Zimmer, Alan Walker Remix. Acrylic on canvas.

SUPPORT TIERS:

$35 - BLUE BASS

Reward: See your name on the big screen!

$50 - MAGENTA MARIMBA

Reward: A digital link to the film when the final cut is ready and a hand-signed Sound & Color poster! Plus, all the benefits of previous tiers.

$100 - VIOLET VIOLIN

Reward: Our film composer will write a 15-second song inspired by your name! And you'll get an exclusive Sound & Color tote bag and a hand-signed thank you note! Plus, all the benefits of previous tiers.

$500 - PERIWINKLE PIANO

Reward: A copy of one of Sarah’s prints from a choice of five, and one (1) screening event license for your organization (No filmmaker Q&A). Plus, all the benefits of previous tiers.

$1,000 - CORAL CLARINET

Reward: Associate Producer credit, one (1) private screening event WITH filmmaker Q&A for you or your organization, and a personalized thank you video from the team! Plus, all the benefits of previous tiers.

$5,000 - FLUORESCENT FLUTE

Reward: Executive Producer credit, two (2) private screening events with filmmaker Q&A for you or your organization, and one (1) customized piece of digital art by Sarah with your choice of song or of your name. Plus, all the benefits of previous tiers.

Image: Sarah Kraning, Taylor Swift's "Anti Hero." Acrylic on canvas.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:

Can't donate? No worries! There are so many ways you can support this project. You can:

Email or text our campaign link to your friends and family!
Follow us on Instagram to keep up with our team!
Request a donation match from your employer!

OUR TEAM:

Alissa Fagin - Director

Alissa has been working in the documentary industry since 2019. As part of the development team at Jigsaw Productions (helmed by Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney), she helped develop and pitch projects, including the Emmy-nominated HBO series, Unveiled. In production, Alissa has worked on projects for premium platforms like HBO, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Her first documentary short, Mental, made a festival circuit in 2020 and was awarded Runner-Up for Best Documentary Short at WCTE PBS Downtown Film Festival. Alissa is passionate about telling stories that center science, art, and everything in between. Sound & Color is the product of Alissa’s long-standing fascination with synesthesia, and she is so excited to be collaborating with an incredibly talented artist and team to bring the vision to life.

Catherine Sillars - Producer

Catherine Sillars is a producer based in Brooklyn. Catherine loves being challenged by any medium of production but her first love will always be documentary filmmaking. Her most recent short documentary, Intrepid, was a finalist for the Young Emerging Filmmakers Award at The Newburyport International Documentary Film Festival and her previous film El Jardin de Miguel (Miguel's Garden) was made in collaboration with the Ludwig Institute of Cuba and featured the last known footage of famed Cuban agronomist, Miguel Angel Salcines. In her fledgling career, she's gotten to work alongside incredible creatives to produce a variety of bold work: anything from a Food Network video with Alex Guarnaschelli, to epic 3D billboards in Times Square. She hosts and produces In The Kitchen: A Culinary Tour of Brooklyn for Radio Free Brooklyn which has run for over 30 episodes and is consistently one of the best performing shows on the station. In her free time, she enjoys cooking ridiculously complicated meals in her apartment and befriending stray cats off the street.

Claire Ogden - Producer

Claire Ogden is a freelance documentary producer, writer, and curator based in Somerville, Massachusetts. She loves documentaries that experiment with the nonfiction form and screens films for Camden International Film Festival and True/False Film Festival. In her free time she enjoys taking Spanish classes and exploring Boston on her bike.

Cody Ball - Director of Photography

Cody is a director and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY. His documentary style is guided by the desire for context, heart, and intimacy. He has lensed documentaries for Netflix, BBC, Vice, Paramount+, PBS, & Vox, and has screened his work at film festivals across the US and UK. His branded projects have earned recognition by Adweek, Digiday, Gerety and Cannes Lions. Cody’s background in sound design and editing informs how he shoots--with an awareness of how each decision contributes to the larger picture. However, don’t be alarmed if he takes out a recorder and starts capturing strange audio for his collection. Cody is a proud member of the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance, and the Video Consortium, where he is putting effort into programs and initiatives that support the documentary community at large. Currently, he is part of a small team running a global documentary mentorship program sponsored by Sony.

Gavi Kutliroff - Composer

Gavi Kutliroff is a Brooklyn, NYC-based musician, composer, songwriter, and audio engineer. His impressionist approach to music blends colors, sounds, and textures from worlds as diverse as jazz, Appalachian traditional music, and electronica. He is a sound engineer at the legendary Jalopy Theatre & School of Folk Music and the editor for the Secret Sonics podcast. He writes, records, and performs original indie folk music under the moniker Pleasant Peasant. He enjoys long walks on the beach and getting caught in the rain.

Thank you for reading!

If you've made it this far, we appreciate you. We're so excited to make this film happen with you!

Cheers,

The Sound & Color team

Sound & Color: a short documentary

Support an experimental film about an artist with sound-to-color synesthesia as she tries to animate her visual experience of sound for the first time. Scroll down for more information on reward tiers and prizes. Your donation is tax deductible!

Team Members