When composer Penka Kouneva came to Duke in 1990 from Bulgaria, she didn't expect to stay for seven years and leave with a Ph.D. She also didn't expect that her work would make its way back to Durham in 2008.
But thanks to the Carolina Theatre's Escapism Film Festival, Kouneva's music has found its way back to her first American home.
She wrote the score for Midnight Movie, one of the 13 films playing as part of the festival's fifth season.
Kouneva, who came to Duke on the Mary Duke Biddle Fellowship for Composition, said her study at the University was paramount in her musical development.
"[Duke] gave me that sense of foundation, that sense of capability," she said.
As much as Duke was formative for Kouneva, her Bulgarian roots are as, if not more, important.
"I was born and raised in Eastern Europe and this is my most authentic voice," she said. "If I come from that place of authenticity, my music will be dark and serious [which is] good for drama."
As such, the score for Midnight Movie reflects this tone as well as Kouneva's research on the scores for B-movies from the 1960s.
Set a decade later in the 1970s, Midnight Movie balances two tales of terror. When a group of friends gather in the theater to watch a cult horror film, they find themselves embroiled in a race for their lives to escape the film's villain, who has jumped off the screen and into their reality.
Like many of the films at Escapism, Midnight Movie is best suited for fans versed in the history of horror films.
"Due to the supernatural nature of our story, we were able to create a villain that paid homage to the past, but with a fresh approach," said Jack Messit, the film's writer and director, in a press release. "It was fun to explore what a more traditional slasher villain would do in a modern film."
But Midnight Movie is only one of several films playing this weekend. Now in its fifth year, the Escapism Film Festival-in 2006 the festival took a one-year hiatus and transformed itself from an Asian-only event-is proving itself to be a venerable tradition at the theater in the same vein as the famed "Midnight Madness" section of the Toronto Film Festival.
"We'd like to be the Southeast's answer to Midnight Madness," said Jim Carl, senior director of the Carolina Theatre.
He added that 2007 was the best year for the festival so far, as it saw its highest attendance and ticket-sales. And now, in 2008, cinephiles can enjoy their favorite genre of film set to the sounds of one of the area's own.
The Escapism Film Festival runs from Oct. 17 to 19 at the Carolina Theatre, 309 W. Morgan St. downtown. Midnight Movie screens Saturday at 9:40 p.m. and Sunday at 9:35 p.m. For more information, visit carolinatheatre.org/escapism.
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