Grass + Live Score by ZÖJ

Experience Grass (1925) with a live score by ZÖJ at The Capitol, Melbourne, on 1 May. Presented by Castlemaine Documentary Festival, this immersive event follows the Bakhtiari's vast seasonal migration, with music that responds in real time to the film's rhythm, physicality and scale.

On 1 May, The Capitol hosts a rare silent epic as Grass meets a live score by ZÖJ. Presented by Castlemaine Documentary Festival (CDoc), this special event restores cinema as a shared ritual, where film, sound and audience gather in the same space for an immersive experience. 

Created in 1925, Grass documents the seasonal migration of the Bakhtiari people across what is now Iran. Tens of thousands of people and animals move together through rivers, mountain passes and open plains, revealing a monumental journey shaped by land, weather and time. The film is both an astonishing record of collective endurance and a portrait of daily life at immense scale. Nearly a century later, the work is heard anew. ZÖJ perform a live score that responds in real time to the film's rhythm, physicality and momentum. The music does not sit over the image; it moves with it, amplifying breath, weight and duration as the journey unfolds on screen. This is not a conventional screening. It is a communal, time‑shifting encounter with a landmark of documentary history, reanimated through live performance. 

For lovers of documentary, world cinema, live music and adventurous art, it offers a singular night at The Capitol.

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