Posted by: Marian Visser van Klaarwater Posted on: Wednesday 09 February 2011, 16:46

From February till March a new festival “Silent Pictures go loud” will take place on three weekends in different cinema and concert venues in Tallinn as part of the programme of European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011. The concept of the festival is to blur the boundaries between film and music, present surprising and unexpected solutions that will give silent films a unique and universally comprehensible voice.

Soundscapes

Five concert screenings will bring surprising soundscapes in which the silent films are seen almost entirely in their original form – the only different thing being the soundtracks, developed by talented and internationally acclaimed musicians over half a year. The genres and themes flow into one another and the silent films shout: “The world is one and cultural boundaries exist only in out-dated thoughts”. In terms of perception of culture it seems there is no difference as to in which era or geographical region we were born – inspiration has no boundaries. For example a 21st century Congolese musician is watching a 100 year old movie by a German director about a love story from Bora-Bora – and his eyes light up with understanding. The festival is full of that kind of unexpected moments of enlightment.The festival takes place from 19 February to 5 March 2011 in Kumu auditorium, Artis Cinema and the Russian Culture Centre. The films will get a new language through improvisations by musicians from around the world, from Africa to America.

Congo

The highlight of the festival is the performance of Konono No 1 – award winning ethno futuristic band from Congo – on 5 March at the Russian Cultural Centre. The band will make music for the German classic Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau exotic movie „Tabu“.The white screen will also show classic film pearls like Dziga Vertov’s „Man with a movie camera”, Estonian classic “Young Eagles” and the German “Berlin, Symphony of a Great City”, that hasn’t been shown in Estonia before. As silent films are being made today as well, one of this century’s most visually fascinating movies “The Aerial” is part of the programme.

Silent films

The silent films will come to life through contemporary and enchanting sounds created by Argento Tango Fusion from Spain, spaghetti western style duo of guitar virtuosos Dead Combo from Portugal, American rapper and beat boxer Napoleon Maddox from the USA together with Estonian Jazz clarinet player Meelis Vind and the Estonian cult band ÖÄK.Japanese silent films and the declining benshi culture will be discussed during a lecture along with the screening of a rarity „Serpent“ (1925) while text and dialogue will be presented by famous Japanese benshi Saito Yuko.

The organisers hope that the festival will become popular among the music and film fans in Estonia as well as international audiences and it will continue in the years to come.

Tickets are available at Piletilevi and one hour before the event at venue.

More information about the event "SILENT PICTURES GO LOUD" can be found on Facebook.