Tonight at 8 p.m. at the Dryden, Paolo Cherchi Usai will present A Sampler of Cinematic Gems from the Museum's Collection.

This is the inaugural program of a new series dedicated to the appreciation of George Eastman House's renowned collection of over 28,000 films, carefully selected from the world's cinematic legacy. The show begins with the amazing short film that paved the way to the introduction of sound, [Theodore W. Case Sound Test # 4: Canary] (US 1925, 2 min.), shot in Auburn, New York. Three-quarters of a century later, soundscape reaches unprecedented dramatic heights with In Absentia (Stephen and Timothy Quay, UK 2000, 20 min.), a masterpiece of animation scored by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Its counterpoint is Pass the Gravy (Fred L. Guiol, US 1928, 22 min.), where the absence of sound is employed to irresistible comedy effect, courtesy of Philip C. Carli's live piano performance. We then travel to the Southern hemisphere with Kitchen Sink (Alison Maclean, New Zealand 1989, 14 min.), whose eerie setting and music background would make David Lynch envious. For comic relief, Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (US 1925, 3 min.) brings the program to a sweet, lighthearted closure. And that's only the beginning!

[source: Dryden website, 2015-Apr-20]