Reimagining Berkeley

We’re teaming up with Birmingham’s best improv and experimental music promoter Fizzle once more for a night of silent films with live music.

The evening’s moving pictures come courtesy of the late American film director and musical choreographer Busby Berkeley (1895 - 1976) to coincide with the British Film Institute’s national season celebrating musicals. Taking some of his most lauded showstopping scenes from films such as Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and 42nd Street (1933), musicians Olivia Murphy (saxophone), Barry Edwards (guitar) and Sarah Farmer (violin) will be reinterpreting the scenes by creating new solo soundtracks which will be performed live. Also screening alongside these extracts from feature films, will be a selection of early short films that influenced Berkeley’s filmmaking approaches including the 1921 city symphony Manhatta and the dada classic Anemic Cinema (1926) by Marcel Duchamp.

Doors open at 19:30, with the performances starting at 20:00.

*Screening as part of BFI Musicals! The Greatest Show on Screen, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery, BFI Film Audience Network and ICO. bfimusicals.co.uk #bfimusicals *