Kirk Johnson’s documentary short follows two young men, one of whom is driven to distraction by a nearby dying smoke alarm, on their quest to make things right.

Film by Kirk Johnson

When Robert Vilalta and Samuel Smith set out to canvass their neighbors in their L.A. neighborhood, things quickly get uncomfortable. The pair are searching for the source of a particular beep: the intermittent ping that a smoke alarm makes when its battery is running low. It’s not in their building, but they can hear it every night—and it’s driving one of them crazy. Finding the source is a tall order in their dense neighborhood of bungalows and multiunit apartment buildings, and tracking it down means knocking on doors, introducing themselves to strangers in English or Spanish, and explaining why they’re coming around to investigate the nuisance—without becoming a nuisance themselves. In the course of their conversations, they meet all kinds of neighbors. Some also hate the beeps; some have never noticed them. Some offer an easy laugh at their project; others are hostile, or refuse to interact at all. While searching out the origin of the beeps, Robert and Samuel end up connecting with their community in unexpected ways—and reëxamining their place within it.