BIMA Bistro has switched to its fall hours: Monday-Saturday, open 10am-4pm. Closed Sundays.

WINTER HOLIDAY HOURS

In observance of the holiday season, the museum will have the following schedule changes:

  • Tuesday, December 24: The museum will close at 2:00 PM.
  • Wednesday, December 25: The museum will be closed all day.
  • Tuesday, December 31: The museum will close at 2:00 PM.
  • Wednesday, January 1: The museum will be closed all day.
Exhibiting Forgiveness Hero

Special Screening: Exhibiting Forgiveness with composer Jherek Bischoff
Past Event

Please note: This BIMA event will be presented at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, not BIMA’s auditorium.

Join us for a transformative evening as we present a special screening of Exhibiting Forgiveness, a powerful film that explores the complexities of forgiveness, particularly within the father-son dynamic, and how art can facilitate healing.

In Exhibiting Forgiveness, viewers embark on a poignant journey that examines the intricate relationships between fathers and sons, based on the true story of artist and the film’s writer and director, Titus Kaphar. Through heartfelt stories of confrontation and reconciliation, the film delves into themes of compassion, resilience, and the transformative power of art in fostering forgiveness and understanding.

Following the screening, engage in a Q&A session with composer Jherek Bischoff, whose evocative score enhances the emotional depth of the film. Discover how music and art contribute to the healing process, and gain insights from the composer about the creative choices that shaped the film’s narrative.

Join us next door, at Treehouse Café, immediately after the Q&A for an after party meet and greet. Cash bar.

About the film:

Written and directed by Titus Kaphar
Original score by Jherek Bischoff

Starring: André Holland, Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, John Earl Jelks

Tarrell (Holland) is an admired American painter who lives with his wife, singer Aisha (Day), and their young son, Jermaine. Tarrell’s artwork excavates beauty from the anguish of his youth, keeping past wounds at bay. His path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, La’Ron (Jelks), a conscience-stricken man desperate to reconcile.

Tarrell’s mother, Joyce (Ellis-Taylor) a pious woman with a profound and joyful spirituality, hopes that Tarrell can open his heart to forgiveness, giving them all another chance at being a family. Tarrell and La’Ron learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving in this raw and deeply moving film.

 

About special guest Jherek Bischoff:

Jherek Bischoff, who grew up as a liveaboard in Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor, is a composer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist currently based in Los Angeles. His credits include over a dozen albums as a solo artist or band member (The Dead Science, Parenthetical Girls, Xiu Xiu), over sixty albums as a songwriter, producer, arranger, musician, or engineer (Andra Day, Regina Spektor, Angel Olsen), and music for film, symphony orchestra, opera, theater, and ballet (Exhibiting Forgiveness, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Organ Trail).

Bischoff began his musical career as a member of alt-rock and experimental bands and taught himself to record, produce, arrange, and orchestrate. In 2012, he ventured out as a composer and solo artist, and with the release of two critically acclaimed albums — the orchestral-pop Composed and the ambient-instrumental Cistern — Bischoff was hailed a “polymath” (The New York Times), a “visionary” (SPIN), a “formidable force in orchestral music” (NPR), and quickly became an in-demand composer and collaborator.

With a deep love of classic Hollywood movie soundtracks, Bischoff’s progression as a composer for stage and screen comes naturally. Since his first musical score in 2014 (Johnny Breitwieser for Schauspielhaus Vienna), he has scored another six theater productions, including England’s National Theatre award-winning The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and the Staatstheater Hanover award-winning Kasimir und Karoline. Most recently, Bischoff has pivoted to film and television, with credits including Exhibiting Forgiveness, Small Town Universe, and Organ Trail.

Bischoff’s prolific career includes collaborations with William Shatner, Neil Gaiman, David Byrne, and Kronos Quartet; commissions by The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, The Royal Conservatory, and St Ann’s Warehouse; performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Orchestra, s t a r g a z e, and yMusic, and performances at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival, and in Times Square.

 

About the Score

THE SOUND OF FORGIVENESS 
Jherek Bischoff’s connection to the film began through a long-time friend and Exhibiting Forgiveness Co-Producer, Michael McQuilken, also known as MVQ. “Michael and I go back probably 20 years, playing in bands and going on tours together,” Bischoff recalls. When McQuilken reached out, asking if he had heard of Titus Kaphar and whether he was interested in composing for film, Bischoff was intrigued. “I had heard of Titus, and I was very interested. In fact, I had moved to L.A. specifically to get more serious about film music,” Bischoff explained. McQuilken sent him the script, and Bischoff fell in love with it immediately. “I thought it was not only very heartfelt, but it also felt very musical.”
Like everything associated with the film, Kaphar was committed to creating an emotionally resonant score. Bischoff was not the most experienced composer considered for the film, 27 but Kaphar trusted his instincts. Despite being a relatively new name in the film-scoring world, Bischoff was determined to impress. “They were interviewing a lot of composers who had been doing it for a long time,” he said. Nevertheless, McQuilken vouched for him, and Kaphar was open to giving a newcomer a chance.
Bischoff seized the opportunity, creating 10 to 12 full demos with real strings, horns, and piano in just a couple of days after their first call. His proactive approach paid off, and Kaphar became seriously interested. “I looked at several different composers, and to be honest, all of them had more experience than Jherek,” says Kaphar. However, it was Bischoff’s deep understanding of the script and his ability to produce original pieces based solely on their conversations that stood out. “Jherek wrote no less than nine pieces for the film based on the script. We hadn’t shot anything yet. I listened, and I was like, this is amazing,” explains Kaphar.
“Titus had to go to bat for me,” says Bischoff. “There were a lot of people trying to get him to go with someone that had more experience under their belt, but Titus was just over and over again, ‘Jherek is my guy.’” The two began collaborating closely, exchanging ideas and images to inspire the musical direction for the film.
What cemented Jherek’s place in the film was his creative synergy with Kaphar and his readiness to explore new territories. This collaboration led to the development of the film’s distinctive sound, with Kaphar highlighting how integral Bischoff’s initial sketches were to the final score. “Those sketches that he made are pretty much what we used for the film. We expanded on them a little bit, but that’s pretty much what we used,” said Kaphar.
One of the most significant collaborations during the project was Bischoff and Andra Day on the song “Bricks,” featured in the film. “Titus is a very specific person, and he wanted this song to be Joyce’s song,” explains Day. “Even though he had specific ideas, he left a lot of space for our creative ideas to come to light as well,” says Day. They put together a playlist and, from that, developed Aisha’s sound and her identity as an artist. “He played me a few different sounds, anywhere from classical music to other scores, other soundtracks, to hip hop, to rock. It was a blend, and really, it was about gathering the soul,” explains Day. “He 28 really gave me a lot of free rein and said, ‘What would you do? A lot of Aisha is you already.’ That was sort of the icing on the cake, and it helped give me direction.”
“I had this one idea that I was working on, and for whatever reason, I liked it, but I didn’t love it,” explains Day. “Titus introduced me to Jherek, who was working on the soundtrack, and he produced the music. Titus sent me a snippet of the track, and I just loved it. I thought it was beautiful,” says Day. That was the beginning of Bischoff and Day’s collaboration. “I have this thing where I like going in the studio, and I like freestyling at first because there’s something about that very first inspiration or that first transmission, I think that you can’t recreate. Whatever melody and sound comes out first, chase that down.”
Working with Andra Day on “Bricks” was an amazing experience for Bischoff. “Watching her process was incredible. She’d be humming along, and these incredible words that were so linked to the film and the characters would just come out,” he marveled. He admired how Day’s lyrics tapped into the essence of the film without being overtly literal. “The words were tapping into everything that the film is expressing, but doing it from a different angle,” he said.
During film production, Andra would leave the set when she wrapped for the day after playing her role of Aisha and head to the recording studio to work on the track. “Andra would give an extraordinary performance, then leave New Jersey, take a car service to the studio in New York, and start recording at two or three o’clock in the morning,” Kaphar explained. The process was collaborative and vibrant, as Kaphar was often invited to join Day and Bischoff in the studio. “It was so fun. We just vibed, and she would tell me the lyrics she had written, get in the booth, and sing it.”
Initially, Bischoff experimented with numerous ideas: “I probably made like 30 different 30- second vibe demos,” he said. After exploring various directions, they found themselves returning to one of Bischoff’s original demos. “Titus asked, ‘Why isn’t this the song?’ And we all kind of looked at each other like, ‘You’re right, this seems like the song.'”
“I wanted the song not to just be a song that goes, ‘I love you, Mom. You’re so sweet, and you’re so supportive and da-da,’” explained Day. “Because the themes in this movie are more universal, it became important to me to talk about breaking generational traumas or 29 curses and also being grateful for the gifts that you’ve been given throughout your lineage,” says Day. “Bricks” is the result that brought something truly special to Exhibiting Forgiveness. Their unique artistic talents seamlessly blended music and narrative, and they crafted a title song and score that not only complemented the storytelling but also heightened the emotional depth of the film, giving the movie an additional layer of artistic expression and emotional impact.

When

Nov 17, 2024
6:30pm

Where

The Historic Lynwood Theatre

Tickets

Share

Event Categories

Trailer

Featured song by Andra Day and Jherek Bischoff