Vinay Chowdhry, director of photography for Black February, is profiled in the Public Engagement blog from New York City’s New School.

Vinay, a faculty member at the New School media studies department, discusses Butch’s amazing ability to pull the musical elements out of any moment:

“One of the first shoots we did for Black February was a lecture in Arnold Hall. [Morris] was speaking about Conduction, and he turned the audience of laymen into an ephemeral and other worldly sound scape with just the contents of their pockets.”

We didn’t use that footage from the shoot in the film, but the moment was priceless: Butch asked the lecture audience to take something from their pockets–pens, or paper–and use them to make sustained noises. He then Conducted those seemingly random sounds into music.

The audience was mesmerized: they finally physically understood what Butch meant by Conduction, and  got some insight into the genius that allowed him to hear music in every moment he lived.

Perhaps one day we’ll release the outtakes.

For now, check out this great clip of Butch conducting a workshop at Lucky Cheng’s in the East Village.