Silent Asia - SCREENSHOT: Asia

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You can’t use silence in a silent film. This is 74 minutes of a lot of writing and a lot of improvisation.

Our SCREENSHOT: Silent Asia THROW OF DICE program was held in March 2020 just before the pandemic arrived. The special event was a screening of the 2006 digitally restored print of A Throw of Dice (dir. Franz Osten), a 1929 silent Indian film based on a story from the Mahabharata. The film follows two kings as they vie for the love of a hermit’s daughter, the beautiful Sunita. This unique historical gem was accompanied live by a musical score created for the film by New York jazz artist Rez Abbasi and his quartet. He composed the score on behalf of the New York Guitar Society in 2019 and subsequently released it as an album from Whirlwind Records. The accomplished artist Abbasi and his group performed his original score to a full audience on campus. The evening opened with an introduction to the film by Professor Neepa Majumdar of the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh followed by the remarkable performance. Screenshot also had the opportunity to record an interview with Rez Abbasi about the work.

Here’s a short clip of our interview with Rez Abbasi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPndBYg9E5c

A Throw of Dice (1929)

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