Volcanic ash permitting, I fly to Paris this week to perform my new live score for Josephine Baker's 1927 silent feature debut "Siren of the Tropics."
If you're going to Paris, going with Josephine Baker is the way to do it! This performance is at the invitation of the Black France Film Festival. Professor Bennetta Jules-Rosette of the UCSD Sociology Department will introduce the Baker film at the festival. Bennetta and I have collaborated on many Baker projects at UCSD where I am the outreach coordinator of the UCSD Arts Library. My silent film band, The Teeny-Tiny Pit Orchestra, will undergo a name-change for this event -- the organizers asked for a French name and we'll go by Le Petit Orchestre du Peuple.
The good news is that French was my "proficiency" language for my UCSD undergraduate degree--the bad news is, that was 1983.
This month I'll report news from the Black France Film Festival via Beth Accomando's Cinema Junkie Blog (another lovely invitation!) Thanks, Beth! All the other films in the festival are "talkies"---only a fad! Seriously though, here is the link to the festival website.
With Professor Jules-Rosette as my guide, I'll learn a lot about Black Paris and I'll pass along some highlights.
Special note: will this red toy piano count as carry-on luggage? Tune in to find out.
