CLOSING NIGHT FILM + LIVE SCORE

In Person Only

This unusual silent drama by director Eleanor Antin is supposedly a rediscovered "lost" film. Set in 1920s Poland, this contemporary silent cinematic masterpiece is the creation of a modern-day filmmaker and performer, conceived as a love letter to her ailing mother, a Yiddish theater actress. In a Polish shtetl beset with antisemitism and political infighting, two star-crossed lovers seek happiness defying many obstacles. The film is set to a l live original score composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.

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Special Guests + Event: A live, original music score composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals (a founding member of Grammy-winning The Klezmatics) and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin. Their performance is made possible by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. Join us for Q&A and a champagne toast and dessert reception after the program.

Director Bio + Statement: Eleanor Antin is an influential performance artist, filmmaker, and installation artist, who delves into history—from ancient Rome and the Crimean War to the salons of 19th-century Europe and her own Jewish heritage and Yiddish culture—as a way to explore the present.

“I make seemingly old films in order to enter the lost world of the past from the inside, not to stand outside of it and see it as history. The technology of a film determines a large part of what the audience sees. A Hollywood costume drama holds the subject of the film at the conventional distance of representation. I want my audience to experience this world as if from inside—but at the same time—with a sense of the distance they have traveled to get there.” — Eleanor Antin.