Assunta Spina with Live Score (2018)

Live Film Score Commission

New live score composed, arranged and performed by: Alastair Cole, Elena Zini, Simone Caffari, Moreno Coco, Tim de Feu, Alessandro Parlato (The Badwills)

Length: 70 minutes Premiere: 2018 Glasgow Film Festival

This live score commission was a collaborative music and film practice based research project exploring the capacity of traditional folk music, including the use of live vocals, to reimagine the 1915 Italian silent film Assunta Spina. The new score for the film was based on southern Italian traditional music, including pizzica, tarantella and tammurriata, and included both newly arranged versions of traditional music and songs, as well as newly composed music.

The score was commission by the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival and co-commission and produced by Shona Thompson (A Kind of Seeing). It had its premiere as part of the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival and has since toured around UK over 2018 and 2019, with performances at cinemas, music venues and film festivals. The project has also provided the basis of events exploring the previously invisible role of female filmmakers in cinema history. The project is being recorded for release in November 2019.

The project was financially supported by the Glasgow Film Festival, PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, Film Hub North ( part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network and funded by BFI and Creative Scotland ), Mazzini Garibaldi Foundation, Italian Cultural Institute Edinburgh and Newcastle University.

More information on the project can be found at www.silentdivas.com