Screening of Grass (1925) with live music

The NCEM is screening the silent film Grass (1925) on Tuesday 24 November, with a live score by Peyman Yazdanian and Adib Rostami. It's a silent documentary by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the filmmakers who later made King Kong.

Grass follows the annual migration of the Bakhtiari tribes of Iran, a nomadic people moving their herds across the Zagros mountains. The directors are said to have identified with the people they followed, and the film is now regarded as one of the canonical greats of the silent era. It's a piece of early cinema that's rarely seen, and seeing it with a live score gives it a different weight than watching it in silence.

The music comes from Peyman Yazdanian, an acclaimed Iranian pianist and composer whose work blends Western and Persian influences. He's provided soundtracks for films by Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi, so he knows his way around a score. He'll be on piano, joined by Adib Rostami on kamancheh and tonbak — the kamancheh is a bowed string instrument and the tonbak a goblet drum, both traditional to the region the film depicts. Between the two of them, they bring both the piano and the sounds of Iran to the room.

The screening runs from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at The NCEM (National Centre for Early Music), St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, York, YO19TL. Tickets are £21, with concessions at £19 and under-35s at £8.