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“The Sound of Silent Film: A Two-Part Benshi Event,” the second 2014 F.I.L.M. Series program, offered a packed house a multi-faceted event featuring a unique musical collaboration between international artists from Japan, France and Canada on Sunday, Sept. 28. The audience, which included numerous local Utica community members, were treated to a world premiere of a Western-style composition with traditional Japanese instruments brought together for the purpose of accompanying Japanese silent movies.

With the exception of the 2011 French film The Artist, which won three Golden Globes and five Academy Awards, silent films have become a thing of the past. Yet there may still be lessons to learn from this antiquated art form. John Lyons ’16, an Asian studies major with a Japanese focus, was recruited by Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures Kyoko Omori to work on the DHi project, “Reconstructing Serpent.”