Tribeca: “The End of Quiet” Finds Heaven & Hell in West Virginia
“Almost heaven, West Virginia,” goes the famous opening line of John Denver’s “Country Roads.” It’s a song that has garnered worldwide fame, igniting something in the hearts of people who have never even set foot in the state. The End of Quiet, premiering at the Tribeca Festival, takes the audience to a slice of the heaven that John Denver sings about. This slice, however peaceful it sounds on the surface, has its own share of hardships with its pieces of heaven.
Green Bank, West Virginia, is home to the world’s largest radio telescope. In order for the telescope to be able to pick up the faintest of transmissions, the surrounding area must be devoid of competing signals. The town surrounding Green Bank is the only place in the United States without access to WiFi or cell-phone connectivity. This area is known as The Quiet Zone, and a handful of residents live without many of the amenities many of us are so wholly reliant on. Technology essentially stopped in 1990 for the residents of the town, yet their eyes are always trained toward the sky, contemplating the future.
The End of Quiet is, as one would expect, quiet and contemplative. The documentary gives the impression that the filmmakers were able to gain the trust of the town’s inhabitants because the film is presented in such an intimate manner. We’re given extreme close-ups of the people who, willingly or not, have selected The Quiet Zone as their home. There are some who were born there and plan to die there, while others came to this place because of the promise of a technology-free lifestyle. Some dream of leaving The Quiet Zone behind, but all of them acknowledge that there’s a pull that keeps them there – some bit of magic you can’t find anywhere else in this technology desert.
courtesy of Tribeca
Even though the audience can’t get the full experience of being in Green Bank, the silence the filmmakers are able to capture is quite staggering. There’s great irony in the fact that this documentary is premiering in Tribeca, one of the busiest, loudest places on earth. When the film ends, the viewer will step outside and be hit with a cacophony of noise and technology that has no end. Do we lose an essential connection to nature and the earth by living in cities like this? The End of Quiet shows the pros and cons of living in isolation. The quiet beauty of the rolling hills of West Virginia, coupled with the information blackout that exists when so much of modern news relies on the internet.
Perhaps the most surprising parts of The End of Quiet are the conversations about science and religion that naturally arise when living in the shadow of a massive radio telescope. In 2022, the Public Religion Research Institute estimated that 67% of West Virginia was Christian. Often, science and religion are at odds with one another, but Green Bank forces them to be considered in the same conversation. Each of the participants in The End of Quiet has their own thoughts on what is being studied by the government in their backyard and how that relates to their faith. One man believes Jesus Christ was a gift from the aliens because of the way he interprets a Bible verse. To see these two conflicting ideas held in such close proximity is fascinating.
For all its talk about the grandness of space that exists above us, The End of Quiet reaffirms that it’s the smallness of life that matters when push comes to shove. The opening voiceover talks about the expanse that is the universe, but the image we’re presented with is one of the simplest things: two people holding hands. The End of Quiet captures loneliness in such an intimate, emotional manner that you’ll feel your own heart ache.
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