Founder and operator of Austin, Texas’ Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theatre, Josh Frank is well-versed in the ins and outs of the independent cinema community. In 2024, the exhibitor branched out with his own content series designed to play at independent theaters: Silents Synced. With the series, Frank combines his love of music and cinema, pairing silent films with classics of alt rock—Nosferatu paired with Radiohead (selelections from Amnesiac and Kid A) first, then Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. paired with selections from REM’s Monster and New Adventures in Hi Fi—remixed by Frank himself to create an experience that brings new energy and meaning to both film and album.
Silents Synced, working with event cinema distributor CineLife, returns to cinemas for the third time starting on November 7 with Pearl Jam VS. A Woman of the World, in which he pairs the alt rock titans with the 1925 Pola Negri-starring drama about an independent woman who shakes things up in a small town—what Frank describes as something akin to a film noir crossed with Footloose. Frank spoke to the Boxoffice Podcast about what brought him to the lesser-known silent and the role of new alternative content in bolstering the independent cinema community.
The first two installments of Silents Synced used Nosferatu and Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., both well-known silent films. This one, 1925’s A Woman of the World with Pola Negri, is a rarer title. What can you tell us about the film?
This one is so cool. It’s sort of a forgotten movie—unless you really know silent movies, [you’re probably not familiar with it].
One of the things I did when I started this was a really big deep dive into silent movies—just looking at everything. Because part of the challenge [of doing Silents Synced] is that some of the best and most-known silent movies are actually quite long. They can be an hour and a half, two hours, or even longer, and that makes scoring them with albums harder. It narrows down the possibilities. One of the things I make a point of looking for is great silent movies that are within the hour (or less) range. By doing that, I discovered a lot of silent movies that aren’t that well-known.
This was one that popped up, and I was immediately intrigued by it, because it had this beautiful, 1920s Hollywood femme fatale- type character. But it wasn’t a noir. It was almost like a romantic comedy. But it was also very subversive, because [the main character] has this tattoo. The whole movie sort of centers around her being this very independent—very punk rock, really, for the time—personality.
It’s like if you took a film noir movie and combined it with Footloose. Because, really, it’s basically the story of Footloose. Someone comes to a small town. They love dancing, they love being free and being independent and not following the social norms for women at the time. The town is very buttoned up. They don’t want dancing and drinking and smoking, and they definitely don’t want women with tattoos. So it’s really neat, and she’s a great character.
This is a silent movie that has a lot of things to say. It’s neat to see a connection from 100 years ago with issues that we’re still dealing with today, and it’s being done in a fun way. So it’s a great, really cool movie. When I was watching it, and I was trying to think of what [music] would work with it, one of the first things that came to mind was, “Is there an alternative rock band that has a sort of grassroots, small-town rock and roll feel?” And that’s Pearl Jam. They’re an alternative rock band, but they’re earthy, you know? They’re rebellious. [You look at a band like] Rage Against the Machine, and they’re rebelling against international, big-world issues. But Pearl Jam is [rebellious on a different scale]—it’s about people and individuals. [In] the main album I use, Vs., the stories are very much related to being an outcast and small-town stories, so the music fit really well with the story [of A Woman of the World]. In a way, I’m more proud of this one than any of the others, because I’m introducing and reimagining a movie that is unknown.
Does that present more of a challenge in terms of marketing?
Well, the thing is, the majority of the people that have come to the Silents Synced experience, they’re not coming for the movie. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and said they’d never seen a Buster Keaton movie, or Nosferatu—or they’d never seen a silent movie at all. [They check it out] for the experience, and because of the band, or because of the idea. There is a certain draw to Nosferatu, especially during October. There is a certain draw to the comedy of Buster Keaton and Chaplin. But that’s part of the reason I went with a band like Pearl Jam, in order to balance that out. You might not know anything about the movie, but this is one of the biggest bands in the world.
There may be 20, 25, 30 well-known silent movies that people might be fans of. But there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of others that no one’s ever seen! I want to do things with well-known properties, but there are so many amazing silent films that deserve to be discovered.
You’ve been an independent cinema owner for 15 years, so you know independent cinema from the exhibition and the distribution side of things. Can you talk a bit about getting more cinemas on-board to program Silents Synced?
The only sort of Achilles heel of the whole thing—which really is what requires most of my attention—is trying to educate independent cinemas on how to use this tool. What I keep trying to explain is, this series will work for you if you give it the chance it needs. A lot of cinemas have been booking it for a one-and-done thing, and that’s doesn’t give their patrons time to realize what’s happening, that there’s this new thing they could come and see.
If we all get behind new content, that’s the way that we’re going to change things for our peers in other cities—but also it’s the way we’re going to build our own new audience and new opportunities. I’ve been very lucky. The first two played in over 300 cinemas in the U.S. That’s incredible. Most small, indie movies maybe get two cinemas in the U.S. for a couple nights. So I’m not complaining. But it can be frustrating. I am an independent cinema owner, so I’m not just [some director] being like, “Why aren’t these theaters playing my movie? What’s wrong with them?!” Every cinema has their own way that they need to make things work, and and every cinema has their own audience, and I respect that, because I’ve lived it. I understand it. However. You have to take chances. You have to do new stuff. If you want to break your own glass ceiling, you have to do something uncomfortable. And you should think about your peer cinemas and how, by joining together and showing the industry that you’re behind new content, it only helps everyone, including you.
And so when a theater says, “Oh, well, this just isn’t, isn’t for us,” I kind of I call bullshit. It’s not like I’m frustrated because they won’t show my work. I’m frustrated because that shows me that there’s something that needs to change for any new content, you know what I mean? Silents Synced is one example of a new alternative content [model] that currently is only available to independent cinemas. Well, if independent cinemas want their own independent content, then they should find a way to [make it work] when there is something that is specifically for independent cinemas. More importantly, by getting behind it, it strengthens the entire independent cinema community. Because, as we saw from the first Silents Synced, when over 300 cinemas in the U.S. booked it—every state knew to look for it at their independent cinema, because they saw how many other places in the country it was playing. That’s how new alternative content can be successful. It’s not just about the individual. It’s about our whole community of independent cinemas.
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