AT THE ADVENT OF MOTION PICTURES, silent films were accompanied by live musicians who performed a score while the film played on the big screen. In today’s age of surround sound and digital technology, the thought of having a live band in a movie theater is as foreign as a summer blockbuster that doesn’t involve superheroes and explosions.

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Special

The Devil Music Ensemble has played an original score to the silent vampire classic ‘Nosferatu.’

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THE 411: Free. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5. Goodrich C. White Hall (Room 208), 480 Kilgo St., Emory University. 404-727-6761, www.devilmusic.org, www.film studies.emory.edu.

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The Devil Music Ensemble re-creates the experience of seeing a silent film with a live band and usually tours around this time of year with a classic horror film like “Nosferatu” or “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” The trio returns to Atlanta this week with “Red Heroine (Hong Xia),” a 1929 Chinese film that is recognized not only as one of the first martial arts movies, but also as the only surviving Chinese kung fu film from the silent era.

Employing guitars, drums, synthesizers, Chinese percussion and other eclectic instruments, the ensemble creates the soundtrack while the story of a female warrior who exacts revenge on the army that destroyed her village and killed her grandmother is shown.

In addition to the live music set to film, this is also a rare chance to see an obscure and ancient piece of foreign film history.