Local filmmakers present 'Song of the New Earth'

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A film about an extraordinary man from Orcas Island, produced and directed by a Port Townsend couple, is coming to the Rose Theatre this week.

"Song of the New Earth: Tom Kenyon and the Power of Sound" premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in May 2014. Its subject is Tom Kenyon of Orcas Island and his quest, as sound healer, psychotherapist and sonic shaman, to integrate science and mysticism.

Ward Serrill and Sophie Jane Mortimer of Port Townsend met Kenyon in southern France in 2010 while they were working on a film about Mary Magdalene. Kenyon fascinated them and they decided to make a movie about him.

"We got married because of [Kenyon]," Serrill said. Kenyon had invited them to do a session with him, using crystal Tibetan singing bowls; Serrill was moved to propose to Mortimer "and I was moved to accept," she said. They moved to Port Townsend a year and two months ago.

"It's got the wildness that I need and a charming artistic culture" also, Serrill said. He also loves the Rose Theatre. "If Port Townsend was a country, the Rose would be a national treasure. It's like this jewel box ... I call it 'the church.'"

The couple had met in Thailand. Serrill, of Seattle, had just finished doing several films about schools for Paul Allen's group, Vulcan.

"I needed to go to the East for a while," he said. Friends joked that he'd find his wife there, he said.

Mortimer, of Nottingham, England, was in Thailand teaching yoga. "I wanted to come back out in the world and do something," she said.

After they met, they traveled through India for a while. Mortimer's background doing marketing and communications for nonprofits has been helpful in the movie production business, she said.

Serrill's 2005 film "The Heart of the Game" was picked up by Miramax and made a brief splash, but they've decided to self-distribute "Song of the New Earth." "It's DIY – it's kind of the Macklemore way of distributing films. He didn't bother with a record label."

"Song of the New Earth" is produced by Betsy Chasse, a coproducer of "What the Bleep Do We Know" (2004), a popular film about spirituality. Chasse knows theater owners in Sedona, Portland, Seattle and other markets that Serrill and Mortimer want to get the film to. "They trust her," Serrill said.

"Song of the New Earth" is also about "the bridging of the scientific and the mystical," Mortimer said. Kenyon is a scientist, but also experiences paranormal activities. "He has a four-octave voice range, which is beyond operatic," Serrill said. He uses shamanic rattles as well as singing bowls. "Pure sound activates the right hemisphere of the brain," Serrill said, "the irrational door to the subconscious."

"The market for this is the mind-body-spirit world, or people who are exploring an inner life," Mortimer said, such as yoga teachers, massage therapists and anyone who works with the body.

There are "sound experiences" within the film, also, to give the audience a sense of what Kenyon does. "It's an experiment," Mortimer said.

After a screening at the Seattle International Film Festival, they asked the audience if anyone had closed their eyes during the film. Lots of hands went up.

"Oh great," Serrill joked. "We made a film that people close their eyes at."

See (and listen to) "Song of the New Earth" at the Rose Theatre, Sept. 5-11. Serrill and Mortimer plan to be at most of the screenings.