‘Expostulations’ – George Romero’s Unseen First Film to Screen for One-Night-Only Event!

Just a few years ago, one of legendary filmmaker George Romero‘s long-lost films became available in The Amusement Park. It remains one of the more striking horror films about the terror of aging that I’ve seen. Now, another—the director’s debut short film, Expostulations–has been recovered, and will soon screen for a one-night-only event!

The George A. Romero Foundation (GARF) and Music Director Christian Kriegeskotte today announced the world premiere of George A. Romero’s “A Night at the Symphony,” an all-new symphonic concert experience celebrating the life, career, and creative legacy of the Godfather of Horror.

“A Night at the Symphony” begins with music that inspired Romero, including his childhood experience seeing a film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, before moving through newly orchestrated music from Romero’s films. What we’re excited about is the event’s inclusion of an exclusive screening of Romero’s “lost” 1962 debut short film, Expostulations, with a new orchestral score commissioned by the George A. Romero Foundation and composed by Kriegeskotte. It will be performed live-to-picture by the orchestra.

Watch the Promo

For decades, Expostulations was believed lost with its elements thought to have been destroyed in a basement flood. The surviving 16mm footage has been discovered and restored for all of us to finally see.

GARF notes that Expostulations “is a remarkable time capsule of color film footage of Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District and surrounding areas captured in the early 1960s and featuring a majority cast of local African-American actors. The George A. Romero Foundation has preserved and restored the surviving material with help from people closely connected to Romero’s life and career.”