It€™s the start of a scary weekend at Artword Artbar. On Friday Oct 30 the VOC Silent Film Harmonic presents a screening of the silent film classic Nosferatu with live musical accompaniment, at 8 pm at the Artword Artbar. Artword Artbar is a new neighbourhood bar at 15 Colbourne Street, in the arts district of Hamilton. Admission is at the door – $5/PWYC.
Vampires never die! Or go out of style!
These days it€™s all about Twilight, but before these bright young things and the many other vampire films, there was the real deal, the original – Nosferatu. The 1922 German classic will be screened by the VOC Silent Film Harmonic, who will perform live musical accompaniment.
Nosferatu is THE classic vampire movie. A German real estate agent travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula arrange the purchase of a new house; the Count is a vampire needing blood to survive – the real estate agent, his fiancé and the entire town of Bremen is now in peril!
The VOC Silent Film Harmonic, under the direction of Ted Harms, is a group dedicated to performing original soundtracks to silent movies. The group is inspired by how most silent movies were originally presented, by taking themes and using them as the basis for improvisation.
The overall goal is for the music to reflect, enhance and support the movie, not to overtake or distract. For this performance, the VOC is using Transylvanian & Romanian folk tunes as the basis for their improvisations.
The VOC is Ted Harms on bass, Paul Haslem on dulcimer and electric guitar, Steve Lederman on drums & percussion and Wade Whittaker on guitar. All accomplished improvisers, they have also all performed as members of the Kitchener Waterloo Improvisors Collective.
Previous VOC performances have met with enthusiastic response. In Fall €˜08, they played to cult Canadian director, Guy Maddin€™s modern silent feature Cowards Bend the Knee in a variety of venues, accompanied two of Guy€™s short films at the 20078 Brampton Indie Arts Festival, and this past June, were part of the Spotlight €™09 Festival, performing to The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari.
For more information, call Judith Sandiford at Artword Artbar, 905-543-8512 or 905-912-9083
