The Underground Orchestra
Welcome to First Thursday Films
Every first Thursday of the month from October through March, THE 222 will present one from a diverse collection of “under the radar” films by exceptional filmmakers. They encompass a wide range of qualities from “jaw-droppingly imaginative,” uniquely thought-provoking, a bit of edgy and dark, to just purely joyful!
The Underground Orchestra
A glorious documentary profile of musicians who play on the sidewalks of Paris and in the Metro. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (whose film FOREVER, on the Pere Lachaise cemetery, was shown at THE 222 in the fall of 2021), illuminates the lives and music of a ragtag group of international bohemians: an Argentine pianist, Romanian father and son violinists, a Venezuelan harpist, and singers from Mali and Vietnam. All are united by their experiences with political repression and by the luminosity of spirit and boundless courage that led them to flee horrendous situations throughout the world. As they find refuge in Paris, music becomes their economic lifeline, but as this film makes clear, music also becomes a shining metaphor for their will to survive. (1998, 108 min., in French w/English subtitles)