“On radio, the pictures are better.” So goes the old broadcast cliché, and for the most talented contemporary audio producers, it’s no joke. For the second straight year, SILVERDOCS partners with the Third Coast International Audio Festival to present a program of remarkable feature and short documentary work in a dedicated listening session. With the best sound available, you can marvel at the textured sonic world inhabited by audio storytellers.

The Third Coast International Audio Festival is a project of Chicago Public Radio. It supports producers and other artists creating audio documentary and feature work of all styles and brings their work to audiences throughout the world. The organizers of TCIAF were motivated by a desire to bring greater attention and bigger audiences to outstanding audio work—and inspired by US film festivals (such as SILVERDOCS).

TCIAF curators will lead a free exchange with the audience, guide them through a selection of the best of the festival, and hold a discussion with producers from NPR and other public radio outlets. Among the stories:  Sleepover!, in which one reporter covers a middle school boy’s sleepover while his fiancée covers a girl’s sleepover down the block; Dental Déjà vu, about the awkward, humiliating memories of social dancing evoked by host Gwen Macsai’s iconic dental appliance, the retainer; and Metal, with the obsessive rants of author Rick Moody as he looks back on his days of desperately trying to appear cool. These unforgettable gems prove that the ear is sometimes quicker than the eye. Come listen—and see—for yourself.

—Murray Horwitz

Complete Program:
Radio Diaries: Nick Epperson by Joe Richman (16:30)
Dental Déjà vu by Gwen Macsai and Taki Telonidis (6:00)
Pink by Meghan Vigeant (5:00)
Metal by Rick Moody and One Ring Zero (8:00)
Sleepover! by Hillary Frank and Jonathan Menjivar (7:00)