A classic silent film shot in Jacksonville a century ago will return to the big screen later this year, with an all-new score performed by the Jacksonville Symphony.
The symphony has commissioned six composers to write new music to accompany a planned Nov. 14 premiere of “The Flying Ace.” The film was shot a hundred years ago in Jacksonville, with an all-Black cast. It is the only surviving feature-length film made at Jacksonville’s Norman Studios, and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2021.
Composers Carlos Simon, Jongnick Bontemps, Kathryn Bostic, Nathalie Joachim, Allison Loggins-Hull and Levi Taylor have each been commissioned to write music for one of the film’s six reels. The symphony will use a “click track” when playing live to synchronize the music with the action on screen.
“The Flying Ace” tells the story — silently, of course — of a World War I pilot who takes a job as a railroad detective to track down a stolen payroll. It was filmed on the Norman Studios lot in Arlington, which specialized in “race films.” Pieces of the prop airplane (they used the same one for the hero’s plane and the villain’s) are on display in the city-owned museum that now stands on the site.
The film was thought to be lost, like the others shot at the studio, until a copy was found and restored for the 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
It was filmed just after an era when Jacksonville was considered the Winter Film Capital of the world, with more than two dozen studios shooting films around the city more than a century ago.
An all-star list of composers has been put together to create a new soundtrack. Simon is composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center and writes for the National Symphony and the Washington National Opera. He’s the lead composer, and others will follow the style he sets for the first reel.
Bontemps is primarily a film composer, working on “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Madea’s Destination Wedding,” among others. Bostic is a singer-songwriter who has composed works for Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, Rita Moreno and others. Joachim is an assistant professor at Princeton who has worked with opera companies and theater groups around the country. Loggins-Hull is a flutist and has worked with the New Jersey Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. Taylor has composed works for the Washington National Opera, Peacock’s “Vampire Academy” and Discovery Channel’s “Sewer Divers” TV shows.
Ticket prices for the performance have not been released. Symphony season-ticket subscribers will have first access when packages go on sale in May. Single tickets are expected to go on sale in July.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Symphony to give ‘Flying Ace’ Jacksonville premiere with new score
Reporting by Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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