In A PAGE OF MADNESS, a janitor at an asylum tries to persuade his wife — an inmate — to escape with him, but she doesn’t want to go. This experimental horror film was conceived and directed by former kabuki female impersonator Teinsosuke Kinugasa, co-written with Nobel prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata, and performed by Kinugasa’s avant-garde experimental group. This silent film masterpiece explores multiple facets of mental health through a disorienting array of avant-garde and Expressionist techniques; it’s empathetic, yet raw and direct. (VIFF)
Anju Singh’s live score to A PAGE OF MADNESS, by her project The Nausea, originally premiered at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver, using percussion, strings, synthesizers, and electronics to echo the extremes, dissonances and nuances of mental health experiences that the film aims to portray. The event will provide an environment to facilitate a cathartic, boundary-pushing and reflective sonic and film experience. Anju will also lead a Q&A following the performance.
“A Page of Madness remains one of the most radical and challenging Japanese movies… Kinugasa deploys a battery of expressionist distortions and otherwise stylised images to plunge his audience into ’irrational’ experience…” - Tony Rayns, Time Out Film Guide
Performer bio:
Anju Singh experiments with texture, sound, images, and compositional structure in her practice and work as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, noise/sound artist, media artist, and curator. Anju has presented across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States in a variety of spaces including Fylkingen in Stockholm, Sweden; Send + Receive Festival in Winnipeg; Vancouver Jazz Festival; Polygon Gallery; New Forms Festival, and most recently in Copenhagen, Denmark. Anju’s sound and video work has been commissioned and presented by Canadian League of Composers, re:Naissance Opera, Vancouver New Music, and Surrey Art Gallery. Anju also plays in acclaimed death metal bands Grave Infestation and Ceremonial Bloodbath.
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ABOUT STOMPBOX:
Stompbox is a music-on-film event, screening and performance series active since 2016, curated by David Bertrand.
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