Baton Rouge Gallery’s Movies & Music on the Lawn Continues on Friday, July 25 with 'Sunrise' & an Original Score from Minos the Saint

Movies & Music on the Lawn, Baton Rouge Gallery’s (“BRG”) popular and inventive summer film series, pairs up some of the most iconic silent films of the 1920s and 30s with the best local, contemporary bands in our area. The band performs a never-before-heard score for the film, which is projected on a huge inflatable screen on the lawn behind the gallery (inside BREC’s historic City Park).

As always, the screening begins at 8 p.m. (or sundown – whichever comes last) and the $5 price of admission includes free bottomless popcorn. 

The gallery is honored to partner with Whole Foods Market, Dairy Queen, The V Shop, PreSonus and John G. Turner & Jerry G. Fischer as sponsors of this year’s series. It is through their generosity that the gallery is able to continue to bring this unique event to the community. 

In 2014, the Movies & Music on the Lawn series again includes five unique marriages of film and music, with films ranging from the romantic to the unsettling, the comedic to the action-packed. The same is true of the music with styles like Americana and ambient chamber rock, electronic and experimental folk all playing a part in 2014 series. 

With the next installment in the 2014 series, Movies & Music on the Lawn will be screening "Sunrise," theMinos the Saint 1928 film that Roger Ebert once said, "conquered time and gravity with a freedom that was startling to its first audiences. To see it today is to be astonished by the boldness of its visual experimentation."

Directed by the incomparable F. W. Murnau, "Sunrise" begins with a 'woman from the city' on vacation in the country, who we then discover is having an affair with a 'farmer'. The 'woman from the city' then proposes that he drowns his wife so they can run away together. Overwhelmed by the woman from the city, he decides to take his neglected wife for a row in a boat. She gets excited for the date, leaving her child at home, ready for a romantic day with her husband, hoping to rekindle their lost love. Whilst rowing in the little boat, she senses something is not right. He attempts to push her overboard, but backs out last minute. She then escapes into the city, leaving him to chase after her. Eventually, he proves to her how much he loves her and she comes to forgive him as they share the day together, rekindling their love. 

Sunrise won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 and sixty years later was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress for films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Performing a never-before-heard score for the film will be Minos the Saint. Their eclectic, chamber folk sound stretches the boundary of any genre and invites emotional connection through authentic, intentionally developed song writing. Their World Folk sound is “a swirl of Eastern European Folk, Cajun, Latin, a tinge of classical…all focusing over a soulful singer-songwriter, Peter Simon. A quartet of well-established Louisiana musicians- violinist Joel Willson, percussionist Micah Blouin, guitarist Peter Simon and Ben Herrington on accordion, trombone and piano-Minos the Saint comes out much more grand than its individual parts.” (Dig Magazine) 

Learn more about the series’ other upcoming events:

Friday, August 29: "The Lodger" (Alfred Hitchcock’s most acclaimed silent film) with a never-before-heard score by England in 1819 (duo w/ a big, atmospheric sound that has wowed M&M audiences last 2 years)

Friday, September 26: Our Grand Finale for the year features Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr." and a never-before-heard score from the nationally acclaimed Southern University Marching Band ("The Human Jukebox"). 

Admission to Movies & Music on the Lawn is always free for BRG members and just $5 for non-members. Free, unlimited popcorn is included in the price of admission. The screening begins at 8 pm (or sunset – whichever comes last).   

For more information on Baton Rouge Gallery’s Movies & Music on the Lawn series, call 225-383-1470.