Bath Film Festival 2011

The Pitch o' Chance, The Pilgrim, Nugget Jim's Pardner

Update: Unfortunately, Peter Dunn is no longer able to perform at the event. In his place, we welcome Jason Titley.

The Wild West with a difference! These three, rarely-seen silent westerns, shown with a brand-new live score by luminary of American old-time country music Kate Lissauer, are all the work of Frank Borzage - a true Hollywood maverick. Unusual for the time, he showed no interest in robberies or dramatic rescues; instead, his films focus on outsiders and how chance encounters impact upon them. Novice that he was, Borzage's bold rejection of the accepted conventions of the western gives a modern audience a wonderful, refreshing new look at a long-established film tradition. In her accompaniment (which combines original composition and arrangements of traditional material) Kate Lissauer is joined by Jason Titley (replacing Peter Dunn, who is indisposed): Kate began her career as a champion fiddler in her home state of Maryland, and is also an expert clawhammer and old-time three-finger banjo picker, a guitarist and a highly distinctive singer; her band Buffalo Gals has just released a third album. Jason is an accomplished guitar and mandolin player; one of the UK's finest flatpickers, he plays for Leon Hunt N-tet and with his own band Rabbi John.