Burning Man Festival. Osama bin Laden. Virginia Tech. 9/11.
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and 1974 Penn State alumnus Martin Zied nails down projects for major media outlets, traveling the world to capture these elusive interviews and explore issues and sites inaccessible to others. It's a long way from his days at Penn State Abington, but his latest project traces its roots to his childhood.
Zied's documentary, "Voice Messages," examines the wonders of the human voice and the ways we use it to entertain, ascertain, seduce and reduce. It also looks at the biology, aging process and future of our voices in the digitized world.
He interviewed well-known voice and vocal sound effects actors as well as musicians like Take 6, Lalah Hathaway and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt, who lost her singing voice through an illness.
Zied vividly recalls the moment he became captivated by voices as an 8-year-old.
“I heard a voice, and it brought me to tears. It was the voice of a fellow student. His high tenor was so sweet, tender and moving that I couldn't hold back my emotions," he said. "I realized the power of the human voice.”
Zied literally found his own voice over the years harmonizing on street corners and in choirs, glee clubs, barbershop quartets and doo-wop and gospel groups.