Digital Program for Cinema's First Nasty Women: Silent Cinema Shorts with Live Music Featuring Dreamland Faces

Introduction by: Maggie Hennefeld, McKnight Presidential Fellow and Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota and co-curator of Cinema’s First Nasty Women, a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set featuring 99 archival silent films released by Kino Lorber in Dec 2022.

Program curated by: Maggie Hennefeld

The Dairymaid's Revenge (US, 1899, 2 min) 

La grève des nourrices (France, 1907, 12 min) 

Victoire à ses nerfs (France, 1907, 3 min) 

Zoé et la parapluie miraculeux (France, 1913, 4 min) 

Rembrandt de la rue Lepic (France, 1911, 6 min) 

La pile électrique de Léontine (France, 1910, 6.5 min) 

Laughing Gas (US, 1907, 7.5 min)

Daisy Doodad's Dial (U.K., 1914, 9 min)

La peur des ombres (France, 1911, 4 min)

The Night Rider (US, 1920, 25 min)

Runtime: 80 min

Post-show Q&A Panel Discussion:

Stay after the performance as Hennefeld facilitates a discussion with:

• Lynne Kirby (documentary television producer)
• Andy McCormick (artist, Dreamland Faces)
• Julie Schumacher (Regents Professor, Department of English and Creative Writing Program, University of Minnesota)

We will be using Slido to help facilitate the Q&A portion for this event. 

• You will be able to send questions in advance. 
• Questions can be submitted anonymously. 
• We encourage you to access Slido before and during the event to review and upvote what others have posted. We can then address the questions based on the audience interest and priority. 

Click here or the button below to send your questions, or go to slido.com and enter the code: Northrop.

Maggie Hennefeld

Hennefeld is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature and McKnight Presidential Fellow at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author of Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes (Columbia UP, 2018), an editor of the journal Cultural Critique, and co-editor of two volumes, Unwatchable (Rutgers UP, 2019) and Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence (Duke UP, 2020). She is the co-curator of Cinema’s First Nasty Women, a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set featuring 99 archival silent films released by Kino Lorber on Dec 20, 2022.

Dreamland Faces

With clanks, creaks, thuds, and dings, Ryan Billig has been adding off-rhythm percussive accompaniment to silent films with Dreamland Faces since the early 2000s. His influences include Noise, Javanese gamelan, West African drumming, Americana, Charismatic Christian Prayer Groups, Neo-pagan Ritual Community Theater, Rock and Roll, Jazz, and Balkan Brass. He began drumming at a young age and currently performs with Brass Messengers, Better Mistakes, and Brass Solidarity.

Elaine Evans performs, improvises, and composes with varied wind, string, electronic, and percussion instruments. Evans has played regularly with freeform improvisers including work with the Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble and Reform Art West, as well as tours in North America and Europe with Paul Metzger. Evans is a founding member of the International Novelty Gamelan, a composers group using Javanese instruments and musical structures to create modern works. Evans has composed, performed, and improvised for silent movie soundtracks since 1991 with the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, T.V.B.C., International Novelty Gamelan, and Dreamland Faces. 

Karen Majewicz is a composer and accordionist specializing in original scores for silent films. She particularly enjoys scoring silent films created by women or featuring women-centered stories. She is also interested in playing new music, modern classical works, and atonal art songs on accordion. Majewicz holds an ethnomusicology degree from the University of Washington and has studied music composition at the University of Minnesota.

Andy McCormick is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He writes music for movies, theater, with lyricists, and for friends. McCormick enjoys collaborating and is usually willing to experiment. He is a proud musical saw player, ardent supporter of new music, and willing to sing dissonant intervals.

Philip Potyondy enjoys every opportunity to add lyric cornet and other sounds through twisted brass to Dreamland Faces compositions. He also plays trumpet with Brass Messengers, Bud’s Brass Band, Black Walnut Stomp, and the world’s only tree climbing brass band – The Arborators.

Molly Raben is an organist and experimental musician. With her foot in a corner of the cosmos, her practice is founded upon many years on the organ bench at churches. She collaborates with various local musicians and looks to the wind and the sky for her biggest inspiration.

Christa Rübsam Schneider is a cellist and violinist who has been performing since 2003 in the Twin Cities and globally with various musical groups ranging in style from new music to jazz to cinematic chamber. Her father, Wolfgang Rübsam, is a notable organist and formed her ear and love for early music. She has been involved in several theater productions including the recent production, RARE: Stories of Dis-Ease, by Kevin Kling. She has also co-composed, arranged, and performed live original scores for a number of silent films shown at venues such as Trylon Microcinema, Heights Theater, and Movies in the Park. Schneider regularly plays with Dreamland Faces, is jazz trio leader of Ensemble Pro Arte, and teaches private lessons to budding musicians. 

ABOUT THE TWIN CITIES SILENT FILM PROJECT

Generously funded by a Special Events Award from the University of Minnesota Imagine Fund, The Twin Cities Silent Film Project is dedicated to curating archival silent film screenings across the Twin Cities. It is estimated that over 80% of all silent films are now lost. Twin Cities Silent Film Project revives unseen treasures from the archive—with original, live music and multi-disciplinary conversations—to bring local arts, humanities, and cultural communities together over a shared love of silent cinema. 

Northrop Acknowledgements

The Northrop Advisory Board

The Northrop Advisory Board is committed to the growth and awareness of Northrop’s mission, vision, and the continued future of presenting world-class dance and music in our community. If you would like more information about the Advisory Board and its work, please contact Cynthia Betz, Director of Development, at 612-626-7554 or betzx011@umn.edu.

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Thank you for supporting Northrop!

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To learn more about supporting Northrop please contact:
Cynthia Betz
betzx011@umn.edu or 612-626-7554 

Friends of Northrop

A special thank you to our patrons whose generous support makes Northrop's transformative arts experiences possible. Make your mark on Northrop's future by becoming a Friend today, learn more by visiting northrop.umn.edu/support-northrop.

We gratefully acknowledge the support from, Arts Midwest Touring Fund, Minnesota State Arts Board, Marbrook Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and New England Foundation for the Arts.

We extend a special thank you to our event sponsors the Graduate Hotel Minneapolis, PNC Bank, and RBC Wealth Management.   

This season’s listing is current as of 3/17/23

Please contact Trisha Taylor at taylort@umn.edu if you have any corrections or questions.

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Northrop's Aeolian-Skinner Organ

Thank you to the generous donors who continue to support programming for Northrop’s beloved Aeolian-Skinner Organ. It is because of you that this magnificent instrument’s voice will be enjoyed by many for years to come.

The Heritage Society Members

The Heritage Society honors and celebrates donors who have made estate and other planned gifts for Northrop at the University of Minnesota. 

• Nancy M Allen*
• Jerry L Artz
• John W Follows*
• Stephen Gordon and Pat Gavan-Gordon
• Peter S Lund
• Darlene M Sholtis

*Deceased

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This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

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