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AV Club: Silent Cinema Scored

Silent Film Screening with Live Electroacoustic Sound

Join us for an evening of silent cinema accompanied by live experimental music. The program pairs seminal silent-era films from library collections by Man Ray with original sound scores performed live by Miami avant-garde artists needle and Brom Lee. The event will also be the world premiere of the short film "Sketch No. 1, Fire Station No. 9" by Barron Sherer. Registration required. For more information, please contact 305-535-4219 or capleyb@mdpls.org. Ages 18 yrs.+

Program: Remixé et remodelé (needle vs. Man Ray)

•  Sketch No. 1, Fire Station No. 9 (2024, 2 min) – Barron Sherer (World Premiere & the first new 16mm film print entered into the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s collection in over 30 years!)Retour à la
• Raison (1923, 3 min) – Man Ray
• Emak Bakia (1926, 20 min) – Man Ray
• L’Étoile de Mer (1928, 21 min) – Man Ray
   

Remixé et remodelé was initially commissioned by Cinema Vortex and performed by needle for a program of Dadaist and Surrealist films screened at Alliance Cinema, Miami Beach. A program of the three Man Ray films with scores performed by needle was later presented in the gardens of the Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas for the first edition of the festival ArSónica in Seville, Spain.

Of the three films, Man Ray only intended Emak Bakia to be shown with sound; a spontaneous score provided by improvisational solo piano and phonograph records selected by Man Ray from his personal collection,  including jazz music featuring Django Reinhardt. As performed by needle, the improvised scores include elements of Dada, musique concrète, Futurist sound theory, Soviet Montage, and Glitch; composed mainly of phonograph recordings arbitrarily selected and hand played; the contents may include spoken word, Basque folk songs, environmental sound, broadcast interstitials, sound effects libraries, Booger Breaks, and the jazz music of Django Reinhardt.

About the performers 

'needle' is a network of Sound Art Ops developed at the BBCLACR. Individual and collective audio interactions have been broadcast globally and released on notable electronic and experimental music imprints including Alku, Beta Bodega, Bandeja Paisa, Computer Music Journal, Hydrogen Dukebox, and Sonic Acts Press.

Edward Bobb has been described as the “godfather of Miami experimentalism,” a figure foundational to the city’s avant?garde and experimental music scene, with a career spanning over five decades. His sound and video art have been showcased internationally, and his location sound recording has contributed to films by acclaimed directors such as Julien Temple, Jørgen Leth, and Academy Award nominee Jim Burroughs. Art and culture journalist Glenn O'Brien's essay, "Why I Still Don't Paint," published in Intelligence for Dummies (ZE Books), concludes with a discussion of Bobb's pioneering, 80s electro-rock band, The Happiness Boys, and was recently featured in a public reading by art journalist Linda Yablonsky at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. 

Brom Lee (also known as Emile Blair Milgrim) is constantly culling something from next to nothing. These solo stabbings from Emile Blair Milgrim (Las Nubes, Pookiesmackers, Archival Feedback) are field recordings, found sounds, nano loops, and almost-invisible incidentals chopped & screwed, chewed up & spit out til only the grains remain. Hardware, software, anywhere, they don’t care.

About the presenters

Moving Image Alliance is a Miami-based studio project founded by artist Barron Sherer. This Knight Foundation award-winning project is situated somewhere between archival practice and contemporary art, dedicated to preserving and advancing analog film practices through production, education, and community engagement. Moving Image Alliance explores legacy media technologies through experimental moving image production, screenings, workshops, and collaborative projects, and champions local artists exploring the poetic and radical potential of time-based media.

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