Cine-concerts at Transilvania IFF.23: a lost film, D.W. Griffith’s shorts, Dracula & jazz

Cine-concert City Without Jews 

City Without Jews (dir. Hans Karl Breslauer, Austria), a masterpiece of the silent era from 1924, continues the series of cine-concerts at the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (June 14-24, 2024), opened by Metropolis (1927) and A Page of Madness (1926). The film will be accompanied live by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin, who collaborated in composing the original music. The cine-concert will take place on Thursday, June 20, at 9:30 PM, at the Art Museum. Tickets are available online – https://tiff.eventbook.ro/music/bilete-tiff-2024-cine-concert-orasul-fara-evrei

Based on the novel by journalist and writer Hugo Bettauer, City Without Jews tells a story whose implications remain as relevant as they were at the time of its premiere a hundred years ago. In a fictional city in Austria, Utopia, the authorities decide to expel all Jews from the country. What follows is an economic and cultural decline that will make the supporters of the new law question their decisions. It is a satire that, unfortunately, proved to be prophetic and sparked outrage among anti-Semitic groups at the time. Moreover, the author of the book was killed by a member of the Nazi party shortly after the film's premiere, which was no longer publicly screened after 1933. Although the original copy of the film was considered lost, it was accidentally found in 2015, at an antique market in Paris, and restored by the Austrian Film Archive. In 2020, Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin composed the original music from scratch.

Violinist and composer Alicia Svigals has an impressive list of collaborations, from violinist Itzhak Perlman to the Kronos Quartet or Led Zeppelin, and is the founder of the Klezmatics group, which won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2007. Donald Sosin has been creating and performing music for silent films for over 50 years, touring the world's most important film festivals. The two have performed together hundreds of times so far. As Svigals says, "we offer the audience the opportunity to experience a lost art form."

Cine-concert The Stolen Jewels and other short films by D.W. Griffith

A true event for any cinephile is the screening of restored copies of four short films by D.W. Griffith, one of the most influential film directors who decisively innovated this art form at the beginning of the 20th century. The films will be accompanied by live music performed by Donald Sosin, this time alongside his wife Joanna Seaton, who will sing and play percussion. The cine-concert will take place on Friday, June 21, at 9:30 PM at the Art Museum, and tickets can be purchased – https://tiff.eventbook.ro/music/bilete-tiff-2024-cine-concert-bijuteriile-furate-si-alte-scurtmetraje-de-d-w-griffith.

Before becoming known for films like The Birth of a Nation or Intolerance, D.W. Griffith directed over 300 short films for Biograph Company between 1908 and 1912, the first company in the United States dedicated exclusively to film production and distribution. During this period, he experimented with various cinematic genres and storytelling techniques. Griffith introduced parallel editing and techniques such as fade-in/fade-out or the flashback (which he called switchback). Four short films made in 1909 will be screened at TIFF: The Stolen Jewels, The Cord of Life, The Voice of the Violin, and The Englishman and the Girl.

The restoration of these films was undertaken by the Film Preservation Society, an organization dedicated to the rescue, preservation, and restoration of American art films. As Ruxandra Blaga, a member of FPS from Cluj, says, "with each viewing and screening, these archival films 'live' a new life in the public's consciousness and form emotional, cultural, and social connections with them. We are pleased that through these restorations carried out by the Film Preservation Society, the TIFF audience can experience a unique film experience of D.W. Griffith's works."