As Misophonia evolved in my head over six years, starting from the image of a particular woman (no spoilers) commuting home from work on a bus, somewhere along the way she became a library worker. This was probably around the time I began working at a library myself, though books and libraries have always been prominent in my life and regularly show up in my imagery.
Before I was a puppetry artist I worked in publishing, illustrating book covers and picture books. My mom is a designer of book interiors. Books as objects are important to us. Libraries have been my refuge since elementary school, and with the film being about silence (and the desire for it) the library stands for an oasis in the middle of Misophonia’s cacophony.
I started working a few nights a week at Cornell University’s Olin and Uris libraries soon after we moved to Ithaca, New York. I worked at the circulation desk under the Uris clock tower which stands high over the town from the top of the hill. You can see it from anywhere downtown, and often hear it. Its 21 dead-hung bells are still played live every day by the Cornell Chimesmasters, and sometimes you can climb the 161 steps to watch them. They ring every 15 minutes to mark the time, and usually two concerts a day are played. On any evening at 6pm you might hear Bach or Bohemian Rhapsody.
As I made a new home in Ithaca, this sound, quite booming in the library reading room beneath the tower, became a familiar part of my evenings of checking out books to students.
The film opens on the woman waiting at a bus stop, a building with LIBRARY written above the door is behind her across the plaza. This is very much Ho Plaza, where the Olin and Uris libraries stand across from each other.
I wanted to show that she was waiting for something, but clearly this character would not have a watch or cell phone to check the time with. This was a good excuse to put in a shot of the clock tower chiming a time announcement. I didn’t have my audio recorder yet when I worked on this part of the soundscape, so the bell sound is from a cathedral in London.
The bus is running a little late as the woman looks up from her book a couple times, checking if she can see it coming. The bus driver is hurrying to make up time in the shots in between.
Like all the buildings in Misophonia, I made the clock tower out of slightly transparent vintage papers I find at Ithaca ReUse. This way a little light from the light box underneath comes through, giving the buildings some glow. I brought the tree line up higher than in real life so I could get movement into the shot with the sway of the branches.
Also borrowed from the library is Moby Dick. Though I made a tiny version of the book seen at the beginning and end of the film, for the close up shots of the interior pages I decided to just use a real book. Olin Library has at least 16 copies of Moby Dick on the shelf. I went through all of them and found most well-read with many pen and pencil marks. I chose the one with the least graffiti and a classic title page.
Later on the bus ride, the woman opens to Chapter 1: Loomings. If you look quickly enough you can catch one line bracketed in pencil: …[it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off]— then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
The mark was in the book when I found it, but it couldn’t be more perfectly tuned to the mood this commuter would be in later on her bus ride, or to her escape at the end. It was a lucky library synchronicity.
The Providence Children’s Film Festival in February was the first time Evgeni and I saw Misophonia on a big screen in a theater. It was a big crowd of parents with fully engaged kids who gave commentary and audible reactions to all the films- the best way we could possibly have first experienced our first film festival film. There were outbursts of “Gross!” at the first slurp of the coffee drinker- which I couldn’t have been more pleased by.
What I didn’t expect, and should have, were the cries of distress when the library book is taken under the waves at the end of the film. “But the book will get wet!” lamented one girl behind us. “It’s probably a special water proof book,” her mother reasoned. As a library worker I’m surprised I didn’t worry about this myself- but then my magical thinking usually supersedes all else when it comes to puppetry.
I can assure everyone that Olin Library’s copy of Moby Dick PS2384 M6 1947 is perfectly fine. No library books were harmed in the making of this film.
Here’s a clip of the clock tower and book from Misophonia: