New York Times Op-Docs Acquires Award-Winning Short ‘Listen’ Directed By Taliesin Black-Brown

EXCLUSIVE: New York Times Op-Docs, the Oscar-winning series of short documentaries, has acquired Listen, the new film directed by Taliesin Black-Brown. The short produced by Black-Brown, executive produced and produced by Greg M. Moga III and Bray’s Run Productions and produced by Academy Award winner Sam A. Davis (The Singers) “takes audiences into the world of Alaskan sound recordist Hank Lentfer, who is taking care of his mother as she slips into dementia,” according to a release. The film with a running time of 15 minutes premiered at Tribeca Festival in June where it won Best Documentary Short and went on to win Best Experimental Documentary at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Listen screens this weekend at SFFILM’s Doc Stories in San Francisco and on November 12 at DOC NYC and Nov. 13 at Camerimage In Toruń, Poland. “After a few months tromping through the Alaska rainforest with Hank Lentfer, I began to remember I was so much bigger than my ego,” Black-Brown said in a statement. “‘It’s spiritually and ecologically impossible not to be a part of this,’ Hank would say, gesturing to a sun-dappled sea alive with birds, seals and whales. ‘We are all this beautiful.’ I’m in awe and a little giggly that The New York Times has embraced this film and its simple message. As a culture, it seems we are hungry to remember how to listen, to hear a more beautiful story.” Watch on Deadline New York Times Op-Docs/Bray’s Run Productions EP/producer Greg M. Moga III commented, “Listen began with an idea I had to use Hank’s extraordinary work recording the natural world to explore the massive loss of bird populations. As Tal developed the film, it evolved into something more intimate and human, and in many ways more beautiful. I’m incredibly proud of what the film became and thrilled that Op-Docs will bring it to a wider audience.” Listen joins eight other films on the Op-Docs 2026 slate of awards contenders, including The Revolution Against Death by two-time Oscar nominee Joshua Oppenheimer; Sundance winner Living with a Visionary, directed by Stephen P. Neary; The Tuners, directed by Pawel Piotr Chorzepa, and A Wolf in the Suburbs, directed by Amélie Hardy. “With extraordinary visuals and sound and a striking economy of dialogue, Listen makes the global climate crisis feel profoundly personal, deeply universal and devastatingly emotional,” said Alexandra Garcia, executive producer of Op-Docs. “It’s a cinematic gem that is an extraordinary addition to the Op-Docs catalog.” Listen is edited by Ben Kaplan, with cinematography by Mack Fisher. Hank Lentfer and Richard Nelson are the field sound recordists, while Calvin Pia served as the mix technician/sound designer.