The Tuba Thieves
Synopsis
A spate of robberies in Southern California schools had an oddly specific target: tubas. In this work of creative nonfiction, d/Deaf first-time feature director Alison O’Daniel presents the impact of these crimes from an unexpected angle. The film unfolds mimicking a game of telephone, where sound’s feeble transmissibility is proven as the story bends and weaves to human interpretation and miscommunication. The result is a stunning contribution to cinematic language. O’Daniel has developed a syntax of deafness that offers a complex, overlaid, surprising new texture, which offers a dimensional experience of deafness and reorients the audience auditorily in an unfamiliar and exhilarating way.
Full Credits
- Director:Alison O'Daniel, Alison O'Daniel,
- Writer:Alison O'Daniel, Alison O'Daniel,
- Producer:Maya Rudolph, Su Kim, Rachel Nederveld, Maya E. Rudolph, Elizabeth Skadden, Alison O'Daniel,
- Cinematographer:Derek Howard,
- Editor:Zack Khalil, Alison O'Daniel,
- Executive Producer:Wendy Ettinger, Maida Brankman,
- Cast:Nyeisha Prince, Russell Harvard, Geovanny Marroquin, Warren Snipe,
- Co-Producer:Eliza Moley,
- Line Producer:Jolene Mendes,
- Consulting Producer:Alysa Nahmias,
- Additional Photography:Meena Singh, Judy Phu,
- Original Music Composer:Christine Sun Kim, Ethan Frederick Greene, Steve Roden,
Technical specifications
- Country:United States
- Language:English
- Release:January 22, 2023
- Duration:92 min
- Genres:Documentary, Drama


