Breaking Home Ties

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Breaking Home Ties at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Dynamic New Recorded Score for Rare Digitally Restored 1922 Silent Film
“Breaking Home Ties”
Presented by Reboot Studios and The National Center for Jewish Film

Back on the big screen after 100+ years, the only surviving print of Breaking Home Ties and a live performance of the new original score produced by Reboot Studios will be presented at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival on July 23, 2024.

Discovered and restored with new intertitles by The National Center for Jewish Film, this compelling drama full of charm, romance and plot twists, features the Bergmann family whose idyllic life is broken when son David flees pre-revolutionary Russia for America. In New York he becomes a successful lawyer and woos smart, independent Rose. When the Bergmann parents leave St. Petersburg and emigrate to New York, immigrant life takes its toll. Will David marry Rose? Will the Bergmanns be reunited?

Breaking Home Ties, released for general audiences in 1922, was directed by Jewish filmmakers Frank N. Seltzer and George K. Rowlands with the express purpose of countering escalating antisemitism in the US. Featuring sympathetic Jewish lead characters, the film is a rare example from early cinema that explicitly depicts Jewish life and rituals. Long thought lost, the world’s only surviving print of Breaking Home Ties was rescued, restored and re-released by The National Center for Jewish Film.

The mesmerizing new score for Breaking Home Ties was composed, performed and recorded by a group of musicians drawn from some of today’s legendary jazz, americana, avant garde, punk, R&B and indie rock bands, and produced by David Katznelson and Reboot Studios. The music is a remarkable collaboration begun during the pandemic, commissioned and produced by Reboot Studios, spearheaded by 12-time Grammy nominated musician Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), and including Mocean Worker, Scott Amendola and more. 

To arrange a screening of Breaking Home Ties with recorded score for film festival, museum, theater or event screenings, contact NCJF Co-Director Lisa Rivo (lisarivo@brandeis.edu)

New Recorded Score:

New Score Composed, performed & recorded by:
Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) – Saxaphones, Midisax, Keyboards, Percussion
Mocean Worker (aka Adam Dorn) – Bass Guitar, Keyboards
Scott Amendola (Charlie Hunter/Amendola Duo) – Drums, Percussion, Vocals, Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Electronics

Contributions by:
Nels Cline (Wilco) – Guitar
Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) – Keyboards
Gretchen Gonzales (Infinite River) – Vocals, Guitar, Organ
Joey Mazzola (Sponge) – Guitar

Additional Assistance and Recording by:
Adam Dorn, Eli Crews and Spillway Sound

Film Credits
USA, 1922; 78 minutes, B&W, silent with English intertitles
Directed & Written By: Frank N. Seltzer & George K. Rowlands
Starring: Richard Farrell, Lee Kohlmar & Rebecca Weintraub, Jane Thomas, Betty Howe, Arthur Ashley

Film Restoration
Executive Director               Sharon Pucker Rivo
Co-Director                             Lisa Rivo
Technical Director               Rich Pontius
Consultant & Translator    Joseph P. Eckhardt
Film Laboratories                Cinema Arts, Inc, Frame Shop, PostWorks NY, Modulus Studios

Featured Image:

Event

Breaking Home Ties at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

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