In partnership with Pittsburgh Silent Film Society, Rivers of Steel is pleased to present the 1925 epic silent film Battleship Potemkin, screened with live musical accompaniment by The Pittsburgh Composers Quartet.
Odessa - 1905. Enraged with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship's loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable - mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors' revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar's Cossacks. When ruthless White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema history is born.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Runtime: 69 minutes
The Pittsburgh Composers Trio (Patrick Breiner: tenor saxophone, clarinets; Mark Micchelli: piano, keyboards; Ben Opie: saxophones, clarinets, electronics) draws on a variety of sources and techniques, ranging from traditional and free jazz to modern classical techniques.
Venue:
The Pump House
880 E. Waterfront Drive
Munhall, PA 15120
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The program begins at 7:00 p.m. with opening remarks by Pittsburgh Silent Film Society founder Chad Hunter and an intro on the film by Neepa Majumdar, a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh where she teaches film studies courses to undergraduate and graduate students. Among other topics, she has written on silent Indian documentaries, the concept of stardom in early Indian cinema, and is currently working on a book on the transition to sound in Indian cinema.