Wild Horses at the Door, Carrie Lederer's award-winning documentary short, is now streaming free on Vimeo after two years on the festival circuit. Eric Stolberg mixed the film at Digital One, the audio post-production studio in Portland, Oregon, and has been waiting a long time to share it.
The film follows John Wayne Smith, who spent eight years homeless and in recovery from alcoholism before moving off-grid to a high desert mesa in southern Colorado. Then a wounded, pregnant mare showed up at his door, and his life among the wild horses began.
Documentary sound mixing is about subtlety
Digital One has been known for advertising sound for decades, and in advertising there is no room for subtle. Documentary mixing is the opposite, which is why Stolberg finds it such a refreshing change of pace.
Like most documentaries, this mix had two jobs: keep the dialogue clear, and honor the subtleties of the location's ambience. Stolberg calls working with a director like Carrie a privilege, because she understands how much those quiet details matter.
Dialogue cleanup with iZotope RX and Waves Clarity Vx Pro
Run-and-gun documentaries almost always arrive with location audio problems. That's just how it is when there are no second takes, and fixing them is a challenge Stolberg enjoys.
Stolberg used iZotope RX to repair the rougher location recordings: fixing distortion, removing planes, and reducing car rumble. Then he used Waves Clarity Vx Pro to smooth the most egregious background noise so the dialogue comes through clean.
Credit goes to Digital One's Emmy Award-winning sound supervisor and mixer, Jeffrey Fuller, who got him using Clarity for this kind of dialogue noise reduction. Stolberg says it did a great job on this film and is like magic.
An immersive mix in Pro Tools
Stolberg mixed the film in Avid Pro Tools. The goal was immersion: the sounds of the mesa should come from everywhere, the way they do when you're standing on it.
With the dialogue clean, he replaced the ambiences with the field recordings Carrie captured on location. She came back with tons of amazing material, and those recordings are what put the audience on the mesa with John.
Festival run and awards
Wild Horses at the Door played 15 festivals and screenings between April 2025 and October 2026, picking up jury and audience awards along the way.
RedFish Film Festival (April 2025)
Vermont Film & Folklore Festival (May 2025), Best Doc Short
BraveMaker Film Festival (July 2025)
Roxie First Looks (August 2025)
Breckenridge Film Festival (September 2025)
Equus Film & Arts Festival (November 2025)
Tahoe Film Festival (December 2025)
Anchorage International Film Festival (December 2025)
American Documentary and Animation Festival (March 2026)
Santa Monica Film Festival (April 2026)
Ashland Independent Film Festival (April 2026)
Wild Horse Symposium (August 2026)
Greenpoint Film Festival (August 2026)
London Rolling Film Festival (September 2026), winner
Stories Worth Telling (October 2026)
Watch Wild Horses at the Door
You can watch the film right here, or hop over to Vimeo. Learn more about the film through Carrier Pigeon Productions. Wear good headphones or play it on a good sound system.
If you're finishing a documentary and need a re-recording mixer, dialogue cleanup, sound design or a 5.1 surround mix, let us know!
