Outdoor film and music series
Join the Urbana Arts and Culture Program and The Urbana Free Library for Cinema & Sound, a new outdoor event series that combines film screenings with live music! Join us for films, music, and entertainment as we feature the classic silent film, The Dragon Painter set to live music by Kuroshio, a local ensemble featuring Jason Finkelman (percussion, laptop electronics) and Joy Yang (theremin, keyboard) with special guests Saori Kataoka (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Kavi Naidu (saxophone, flutes).
The Dragon Painter is a 1919 English language silent romance drama film. It stars Sessue Hayakawa as a young Japanese painter who believes that his fiancée (played by Hayakawa's wife Tsuru Aoki), is a princess who has been captured and turned into a dragon. The film survives today as a tribute to Hayakawa's great artistry and a shining example of Asian-American cinema.
Kuroshio is an ever-evolving ensemble of improvising artists of Asian descent. They explore and contemplate notions of identity, culture and diasporic histories through multilayered channels of sound and performance. Drawing from rich currents of avant-garde creative practice, Kuroshio’s self-titled debut on Asian Improv Records (2020) features Finkelman and Yang with Shu-Cheng Allen Wu (LinnStrument).
This month's film will be shown at Boneyard Creek Crossing, at the corner of Race and Griggs Streets in Downtown Urbana. Gather beginning at 7pm for artmaking and activities. The film begins at 8:30pm. Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by The Urbana Free Library and the Urbana Arts and Culture Program.
Conveniently located at the corner of Race and Green in downtown Urbana.
