Yo La Tengo presents: The Sounds of Science

The Images Festival 25th anniversary
Closing Night Gala

The Sounds of Science
with live original soundtrack by
YO LA TENGO

Canadian premiere!

The Images Festival is pleased make the first official announcement about this year's 25th anniversary festival by announcing their Closing Night Gala. The evening features the Canadian premiere screening of The Sounds of Science alongside an original soundtrack composed and performed live by Yo La Tengo. These classic vintage science films will be presented in gorgeous 35mm archival prints.

The Images Festival's 25th anniversary edition festival begins on April 12, 2012 in downtown Toronto. The Closing Night Gala will be held at Toronto Undergound Cinema (186 Spadina Avenue) on Saturday, April 21, 2012. Full festival programming will be unveiled March 22.

A day in the life of the sea urchin. Jellyfish and seahorses giving birth. The love life of the octopus. These are the scenarios we encounter in the films of Jean Painlevé (1902-89), the legendary French avant-garde filmmaker who - long before Jacques Cousteau - became obsessed with life under the sea. Famously declaring "science is fiction," Painlevé courted controversy in the 1920s and '30s by unabashedly anthropomorphizing his aquatic subjects in his scientific-poetic cinema.

In 2001, the San Francisco Film Festival presented a series of Painlevé's classic films, with a live score commissioned by American indie-pop icons, Yo La Tengo. An instrumental departure from the trio's usual sound, The Sounds of Science explores ambient post-rock territory reminiscent of Tortoise and the Chicago scene - with occasional forays into funked-up free-jazz - that beautifully transport the viewer and listener into the alien world beneath the waves.

Opening the evening will be a performance by Toronto-based soul-pop singer/songwriter and film curator, Chris Cummings a.k.a. Mantler, and The tide goes, in the tide goes out by Larissa Fan, a hand-processed black and white ode to the secret world of moon jellyfish (aurelia aurita).

LISTING DETAILS:
Images Festival Closing Gala (25th anniversary festival)
Saturday April 21, 2012 8 p.m.
Canadian Premiere - The Sounds of Science w/live soundtrack by Yo La Tengo
Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Avenue)
Films by Jean Painlevé, France, 1929-65, 35mm
With special guest, Mantler + film by Larissa Fan
Tickets: $25 advance