Film event to showcase local composers

Published 12:32 am Tuesday, June 28, 2022

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Boomtown Film Society is giving local composers a chance to showcase their skills to produce a musical score to the movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The group is hosting the event at the Jefferson Theatre in Beaumont July 23.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the box office. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the featured presentation starts at 7 p.m.

Christopher Dombrosky, of Nederland, one of the film society’s organizers, said the group wanted to give local composers a chance to get in front of an audience.

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“We do events throughout the year,” he said. “Usually the events that happen throughout the year that deal with film and filmmaking focus on directors, writers and actors. There was never anything that focused on people who made music for film, even though there were people wanting to do that.”

Dombrosky said the idea came up when Jefferson Theatre reached out to the film society for programming ideas.

“I sent a list of untraditional things that they might do down there,” he said. “One of those ideas was this projects that we have internally been calling the Silent Score Showcase. It was an idea that I suggested. Everyone I mentioned it to was very excited about it.

“Basically the feedback I had received made me feel like it had so much momentum that we should just make it happen, no matter what.”

Dombrosky said the theater liked the idea and invited the film society to present it at a premier event.

Caden Welborn, Faith Baha Ömeroglu, Isaiah Grande and RMStringer will provide the original score for the 1920 classic.

Attendees will be able to watch the movie and hear the original music. Dombrosky said there will be breaks in the movie to say who produced the score for that section and introduce the next composer, all of which have different styles.

“Every one of these composers has a different background,” Dombrosky said. “The first one is very traditional. It is what people think of when they go see a motion picture. Then it gets into composers whose style is more experimental or ambient. Then, the final segment is something you might hear from a DJ. It really is a variety that people will get when they go see the film. Even if there was nothing exciting or particularly different going on with the score, any screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an event for film aficionados.”

The film society organizer hopes the event becomes a mainstay with the organization.

“It is long overdo that they get a little attention,” Dombrosky said. “I hope that if this project is successful, it becomes an annual series where we get local producers to score projects and show what they can do.”