BEHIND THE SCENES with The Last Morning was a Sweet One

The Last Morning was a Sweet One was one of eight finalists nominated for the 2013 People's ShortDoc Award. Here's what some of the listeners who voted for it had to say about the story

• The scenes are evocative, sharp and clear even on the first listen. It's masterful. - I found the omission of words in "telling" this story so creative. Despite the absence of words to navigate the listener through this narrative, there was something elemental and visceral evoked by the ground being crunched underfoot, frying of grease in the pan, scraping of eating utensils against the plate - Although it's the most straightforward story in the group, there's an odd suggestiveness in the use of sound. Or maybe it's the sense of restraint, the absence of explanation or commentary. Of course you can identify the key elements -- snorting, gunshot, silence, sawing, frying, eating -- and you know exactly where it's going, but half the sounds feel more like time passing than anything literal - It's amazing how much you can divine from pure sound, no hand-holding narration to point the way. And even when it's not completely clear what's going on, it's still interesting, just letting the aural sensations wash over you, like watching a Terrence Malick movie... Tough subject, important story, handled in a daring way, it really worked for me