The End of Quiet

In a remote part of West Virginia lies Green Bank, a small town of just under 150 residents. Since the 1950s, Green Bank has been the home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which detects even the faintest of transmissions from space. In order for the observatory and its employees to do their job, there must be a “Quiet Zone” of 35k square kilometers. That means that anyone living in this zone is prohibited from using cellular services or WiFi. As the years go by, this self-imposed restriction is becoming harder and harder to enforce. With so much of our social infrastructure relying on some level of connectivity, it’s becoming impossible to live without it. Can Green Bank stay as it is or is this the end of quiet?

Directed by Kasper Bisgaard and Mikael Lypinski, The End of Quiet is a contemplative documentary that follows the stories of a handful of Green Bank residents living and working in the Quiet Zone. Instead of talking head interviews, the film captures snippets of the lives of the residents. Subjects include employees of the observatory, a gun enthusiast and his granddaughter, a young couple growing their family, a lonely Vietnam vet and a chronically ill woman and her dog. We observe the subjects as they display varying degrees of calm and unease living in this unique part of the world. There is a sense of paranoia throughout the film. Discussions of alien life seem to point to an underlying fear of authority and forces on the outside.

I was particularly interested in the idea of technological remoteness as a form of control or isolation. I would have liked more information about the observatory and a greater focus on the particulars of the Quiet Zone. However, this documentary seems to be more of a time capsule of the last days of this community’s particular way of life. The End of Quiet will get audiences thinking about their reliance on connectivity and the ramifications of modern life.

The End of Quiet is an official selection of the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival Documentary Competition.