so fragile, so wild

2020, Ordway Theater, St. Paul, MN 

The film so fragile, so wild was commissioned by The Schubert Club of Saint Paul as a collaboration with Composer-in-Residence deVon Russell Gray for the annual program Accordo with Silent Film. The program features silent films with original music performed by string ensemble Accordo. 

deVon Russell Gray composed the original score, Make the Revolution Irresistable, which accompanied so fragile, so wild. The score was performed live by Accordo with electronic accompaniment by Patrick Pegg and deVon Russell Gray, percussion by Kevin Watkins, and with live movement performance by Renée Copeland.

Accordo string ensemble consists of present and former primary string players of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, including Steven Copes and Susie Park (violin), Hyobi Sim (viola), Anthony Ross (cello), Stephen Prutsman (piano/composer) and John Novacek (piano/composer).

so fragile, so wild is a film made entirely from archival footage sourced from the Internet Archive under Creative Commons licensing. The title is inspired by the poetry of Vietnamese scholar, composer, theorist and filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha:

It Went By Me
something very beautiful
just went by me
something not to tell
in words in feelings
so fragile so wild
something yet to tell
is no longer
why and when it left
i can’t tell.

– Trinh T. Minh-ha