George Romero's lost debut film, Expostulations, rises from flooded basement

Originally planned as a two-and-a-half-hour anthology film to show off what Romero and his Pittsburgh filmmaking collaborators could do, Expostulations is a far cry from its initial ambitions. Only 21 minutes of sound-free footage survive. Romero and his chief collaborator on the project, Richard J. Ricci, planned to add dialogue, music, and poetic narration after they completed filming. However, the studio handling the soundtrack went out of business in 1963, and the project was eventually abandoned. Filmed around Pittsburgh, where Romero worked throughout his career, the film captures the city’s historic Hill District and features a majority cast of local African-American actors. Expostulations serves as a time capsule of Romero’s hometown.

For the premiere of Expostulations, Pittsburgh composer Christian Kriegeskotte wrote an original orchestral score for the film and will perform it live alongside Ricci’s narration, which he completed in 2020, four days before his death. Dubbed “George A. Romero’s Night At The Symphony,” the concert will host the first public screening along with newly arranged music from Romero’s classic films, orchestrated by Kriegeskotte. 

Exposulations will premiere on March 26, 2027, at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh, the very theater where Night Of The Living Dead first screened nearly 60 years ago.