Returning to the Walker hillside, this year’s Sound for Silents features a live musical performance from Twin Cities-based multi-instrumentalist and composer deVon Russell Gray. Grab a blanket and cozy up at sunset for an electrifying evening of commissioned new music performed by a special ensemble—which includes Ariadne Greif, Davu Seru, Nathan Hanson, and Andrew Broder—paired with films from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Hillside sound installation by James Everest and deVon Gray. This free event is open to all.
The event starts at 7 pm, with music from DJ Sarah White; the screening and performance start at 8:30 pm. Sound for Silents will be held rain or shine. In the event of rain or extreme weather, the show will move into the Walker Cinema with limited capacity.
Sound for Silents 2024: Film + Music on the Walker Hillside
Thursday, August 15, 7 pm
Wurtele Upper Garden
Free
ABOUT DEVON RUSSELL GRAY
Composer and performer deVon Russell Gray is perhaps best known as dVRG in the acclaimed St. Paul-based hip-hop band Heiruspecs. They approach any new composition, performance, or creative endeavor believing fundamentally in starting from a place of “I know nothing.” Embracing the idea that empty vessels receive new knowledge more efficiently, he constantly seeks a transformative process to expand his artistic horizons. Despite being at a perpetual crossroads, he remains steadfast in his pursuit of new music, honoring the contributions of his ancestors and drawing inspiration from the forward-thinking creators who came before him. Gray made his mark as a composer with the lead single on pianist Lara Downes’ latest album, Love at Last (Pentatone), which topped the Billboard Classical and Classical Crossover charts. Most recently, he received his second composer fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, an esteemed recognition administered by the American Composers Forum.
ABOUT THE FILMS
Wot the Ancient Sod by Diane Kitchen
Life and light converge into seamless images, forming intimate portraits of the sun though the lens of autumn leaves. From the sod, “forces are in transition,” simultaneously decaying back again into the earth. 2001, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 17 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
Otros Usos by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
Shot by Santiago Muñoz at a former US Naval base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico that has become a site for local fisherman. Pointing her camera through a glass prism, the image of the landscape is distorted, reflected, and multiplied. 2014, Puerto Rico, 16mm transferred to digital, 7 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
Black and Tan Fantasy by Dudley Murphy
Duke Ellington and his orchestra make their first film appearance as a jazz band alongside actress Fredi Washington, both depicting emerging Black artists of New York City’s 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Within the roaring backdrop of the Cotton Club, Ellington serenades his ailing wife to a peaceful slumber. 1929, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 19 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
St. Louis Blues by Dudley Murphy
In her hit dramatization of W.C. Handy’s song “St. Louis Blues,” Bessie Smith stars as a lamenting woman of the Speakeasy era singing as her heartless lover drifts away. 1929, US, 16mm transferred to digital, 19 min., Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Diane Kitchen is an experimental filmmaker. Her work in film bridges documentary, personal expression, and cultural commentary. Past screening venues of her work include the Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, Montreal’s First Peoples’ Festival, Vancouver’s Aboriginal Film & Video Festival, Denmark’s Indigenous Encounter of the Americas, the Whitney Biennial, London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, San Francisco Cinematheque, the Pacific Film Archive, and Walker Art Center. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and retired from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2011 after teaching in the Peck School of the Arts Film Department for 27 years.
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her work arises out of long periods of observation and documentation, in which the camera is present as an object with social implications and as an instrument mediating aesthetic thought. Santiago Muñoz’s recent work has been concerned with post-military land, Haitian poetics, and the sensorial unconscious of anti-colonial movements. Recent solo exhibitions include Song, Strategy, Sign at the New Museum, A Universe of Fragile Mirrors at the Pérez Art Museum of Miami, MATRULLA, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, México City; Post-Military Cinema, Glasgow International; The Black Cave, Gasworks, London. Her work is included in public and private collections, such as the Whitney Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Kadist.
Dudley Murphy (1897-1968) was an American director who began making films in the early 1920s following his career as a journalist. His eighth film Ballet mécanique, co-directed with artist Fernand Léger in 1924, is considered one of the early accomplishments of experimental filmmaking. In 2015, the Library of Congress named his short film Black and Tan Fantasy to the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
ACCESSIBILITY
There will be accessible seating space off a paved path on the hillside. Staff members around the hillside will be able to assist with seating.
For information about accessibility, or to request additional accommodations for this program, call 612.375.7564, or email access@walkerart.org.
For more information about accessibility at the Walker, visit our Access page.