Silents, Please! Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life

Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life is a landmark silent documentary adventure from 1924, made by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack with journalist and sometime spy Marguerite Harrison. The film follows the Bakhtiari tribe’s twice-yearly migration across Persia, now Iran, as more than 50,000 people and roughly half a million animals travel toward seasonal pasture through extreme terrain.

The journey includes dangerous crossings of the half-mile-wide Karun River and an arduous climb up the snow-covered, 15,000-foot Zardeh Kuh mountain. Often regarded by documentary historians as second only to Nanook of the North, Grass is presented here as a rarely seen classic with a live, improvised musical accompaniment by silent-film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. Rather than following a fixed score, Rapsis creates the music in real time in response to the film’s action, mood, and rhythm, making each performance distinct.

When: Sunday, November 8

Showtime: 2:00 p.m.

Venue: Cinema 3 at Somerville Theatre

Live accompaniment: Jeff Rapsis, performing an improvised score

Tickets: Price not available