Lisa Rivo, Co-Director of The National Center for Jewish Film, expected to attend. Live score by Adam Dorn, Gretchen Gonzales, Scott Amendola, and Steve Berlin
Long thought lost, this 1922 silent era gem was discovered in a Berlin archive and lovingly rescued and restored to its original glory by The National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF). Presented in collaboration with Reboot Studios and NCJF, the screening will feature live musical accompaniment led by 12-time Grammy-nominated musician Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and award-winning musicians Scott Amendola, Gretchen Gonzales Davidson, and Adam Dorn.
David Bergmann, a young man who flees pre-revolutionary Russia for New York City, thinks he’s committed a terrible crime. His parents follow, but are unable to locate their son, who is hiding from his past. The rigors of immigrant life take their toll and David must reckon with his prior decisions. Made by Jewish filmmakers George K. Rolands and Frank N. Seltzer to combat 1920s antisemitism, this timeless tale movingly captures the arc of Jewish immigrants adapting to American life. Breaking Home Ties will be an unforgettable experience for film enthusiasts and music lovers alike.
California Premiere
Scott Amendola is Bay Area-based a composer, bandleader, electronics explorer, first-call accompanist and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists Charlie Hunter, Nels Cline, and Jeff Parker, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassists Trevor Dunn, and Todd Sickafoose, players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz. Amendola has woven a dense and far-reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to influential artists in jazz, blues, rock and new music.
Steve Berlin is a producer, arranger, session player, saxophonist and a member of Los Lobos since 1984. His eclectic and genre-busting talent can be gleaned from his nine Grammy Award nominations, and four wins, which include Best Americana Album, Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album, and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Berlin is a sought-after collaborator, and his arranging and session work includes projects with REM, Sheryl Crow, The Replacements, The Dixie Chicks, John Lee Hooker, The Smithereens, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Paul Simon (on Graceland), and South American Superstars NVTG, and his production credits include Faith No More, Greensky Bluegrass, Raul Malo, Rickie Lee Jones, Crash Test Dummies, Buckwheat Zydeco, The Tragically Hip, and Leo Kottke. Berlin is engaged in supporting local businesses, music and musicians in the Pacific Northwest, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Adam Dorn is a composer, musician, and podcast host. He is also known by his jazz alias of "Mocean Worker" (pronounced "motion worker"). Philadelphia native Dorn, son of jazz and R'n'B producer Joel Dorn, studied at Berklee College of Music. He adopted the Mocean Worker moniker as a DJ of drum 'n' bass music, and his style evolved to include Electro-Swing, funk, big-band, and swing elements. Dorn has led bands, given high-profile performances, and had his music used extensively in TV, advertising, and film. In 2014, Dorn and Charlie Hunter launched the podcast "Compared To What" and released an album titled It's Pronounced Motion... in Japan. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Gretchen Gonzales Davidson is the chair for the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the state's lead agency charged with developing arts and culture policy and grantmaking. In addition to chairing the council, Gonzales Davidson is an artist and activist pushing musical and civic boundaries through her sound sculptures and musical collaborations in bands, including Infinite River, Seedsmen to the World, and decades of various projects. She serves on numerous boards, including Cranbrook Academy of Art, BasBlue, MELA Foundation, Henry Ford Health Systems Foundation, and REBOOT. She and her husband Ethan Daniel Davidson reside in Birmingham, Michigan, with their three boys.
Lisa Rivo is Co-Director of The National Center for Jewish Film, an independent nonprofit film archive, distributor, and exhibitor located in metro Boston. Founded in 1976 NCJF owns one of the world’s largest archives of Jewish-content film. NCJF rescues, restores, and makes available rare archival films, distributes the work of 100 contemporary filmmakers, and has a dozen films being produced under its aegis. Ms. Rivo oversees NCJF’s programmatic and exhibition activities and consults regularly with filmmakers, scholars, and curators. She has co-directed 17 annual Boston-area film festivals, curated series worldwide, and sat on numerous festival juries. She has degrees in art history and American culture & film. Prior to joining NCJF in 2006, Ms. Rivo worked at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and was a Research Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, where she was Senior Writer of the encyclopedia African American National Biography Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Oxford University Press).
Co-sponsored by Reboot Studios
$345 Members / $395 General Public
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