Film Screening of "The Ancient Law" with Live Musical Performance

PROGRAM DETAILS Join us for a special screening of The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz, 1923) with live original music composed and performed by world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin. - Special 100th Anniversary Screening (1923-2023) - 6:45pm - Doors open, check-in table - 7:30pm - Film and Live Performance begins promptly THE MUSICIANS Violinist/composer Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics. She has worked with violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. Svigals was awarded a Foundation for Jewish Culture commission for her original score to the 1918 film The Yellow Ticket, and is a MacDowell fellow. With jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer, she recently released Beregovski Suite, a recording of contemporary interpretations of klezmer music from a long-lost Soviet Jewish archive. Pianist/composer Donald Sosin grew up in Rye, NY and Munich, Germany. Since 1971 has performed his silent film music at Lincoln Center, MoMA, BAM, the National Gallery, Yale, Harvard, and major film festivals here and abroad. He records for various DVD labels: Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and his scores are heard frequently on TCM. He has taught music at MUM and performed with community members for silent films at the Sondheim Center and other Fairfield venues. He and his family live in northwest Connecticut. Donald is currently touring with Alicia Svigals, performing her score for The Yellow Ticket and their collaborative score for The Ancient Law, The City Without Jews, and The Man Without a World. THE FILM Ewald André Dupont’s 1923 silent film The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz) was digitally restored in 2017 by the Deutsche Kinemathek with generous support from the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. The film is an important piece of German-Jewish cinematic history, contrasting the closed world of an Eastern European shtetl with the liberal mores of 1860s Vienna. With its historically authentic set design and ensemble of prominent actors – all captured magnificently by cinematographer Theodor Sparkuhl – The Ancient Law is an outstanding example of the creativity of Jewish filmmakers in 1920s Germany. A brief synopsis: Baruch (Ernst Deutsch), the son of a rabbi, becomes fascinated by the theater. Against his father’s wishes, Baruch leaves home and finds his way to Vienna, where an archduchess at the imperial court (Henny Porten) falls in love with him. She becomes his patroness, facilitating his successful career as a classical actor. But Baruch continues to long for home, and must find a way to reconcile his religious heritage with his love of secular literature. The movie paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity. For more information, please visit: https://www.gartenbergmedia.com/dvd-distribution-and-sales/international-silent-classics/the-ancient-law. SPONSORS Performance is made possible by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts, the Anne Frank Center, and the College of Arts and Science's Jewish Studies Program and Anthropology Department.

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Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2064502-0

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