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Part of a series of stills from the Film 111.

We live in a world of ambient noise, from household grumbles to tweeting birds — each sound with its own frequency. Taking the sound frequency of 111Hz as her inspiration, Jam Patel invites viewers to focus on their inner silence with her recent short film '111' (2022). Often referred to as the healing sound, 111Hz is said to improve focus and transport us to a higher state of consciousness.

Besides the sound of a tuning fork at 111Hz, noises heard in Patel's short film range from the mundane every day, such as people talking and having breakfast, a boiler humming, and car engines whirring, to the extraordinary sound of a fetal heartbeat. These different sounds are not there to distract us but to encourage us to shift our hearing from outside sounds to the inner plane, where there is silence and contemplation. 

Lasting 11 minutes and 1 second, Patel's film depicts clouds passing gently in the sky, highlighting how nature moves in silence even when there is noise all around us. Patel draws on the sky as a metaphor for inner silence — a peaceful state where internal noise, or thoughts, and external noise cease to claim your attention. Inspiring a stillness so quiet, '111' is a film that underlines the significance of not only sight but sound.

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