LEWISTON — Imagine yourself in the idyllic French countryside in the 1930s. Sometime before dark, a gypsy caravan sets up camp in a field outside of town, luring the locals out for an evening’s fun. The wanderers travel with a film projector, pointing it at the side of a barn. As the images flicker to life beneath the stars, gypsy musicians play their guitars and fiddles, matching every movement on the screen with characteristic virtuosity, passion and humor.

Reviving this lost entertainment, The Hot Club of San Francisco will present “Cinema Vivant,” an evening of vintage silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 10.

Le Jazz Hot is the quartet of the Hot Club of San Francisco, still continuing the tradition of fine French Gypsy Jazz performed on string instruments. Inspired by Django Reinhardt, a man hailed as one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, Hot Club of San Francisco revives an art form based on the foundations of gypsy culture, American Jazz and the polygot culture of 1920s Paris.

Once you hear it you can’t forget it. It is sophisticated, yet it has a sentimental quality. It is Gypsy jazz, and the popularity of this sometimes flamboyant, sometimes melancholy guitar music is growing around the world. Aficionados everywhere are forming bands, called Hot Clubs in honor of Django Reinhardt’s famous Quintet of the Hot Club of France.

Cinema Vivant is a celebration of imagination and innovation. Before World War I, European filmmaker Ladislaw Starewicz pioneered stop-action animation, creating a never-before-seen movie experience. A gifted storyteller who used the new medium of animation to illuminate his fantastic imaginings of the secret lives of ordinary objects, Starewicz has become an obscure cult hero.

Two Starewicz films are featured in Cinema Vivant: The Cameraman’s Revenge, a charming piece about the marital troubles of beetles, and The Mascot, an adventure story about lost toys.

On the other side of the Atlantic, American Charley Bowers revolutionized the industry in the 1920s by combining animation with live action. There It Is, a recently rediscovered film by Bowers, is a whimsical comedy about a mysterious occurrence investigated by Scotland Yard.

Hosted by L/A Arts and Bates College, Cinema Vivant will take place at Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students, and can be purchased by calling 207-782-7228 or online at https://app.ticketturtle.com/index.php?ticketing=laart.

Film titles:

There It Is, Charley Bowers (1928)

The Cameraman’s Revenge, Ladislaw Starewicz (1912)

The Mascot, Ladislaw Starewicz (1933)

The Hot Club of San Francisco will present an evening of vintage silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 10 at Olin Arts Center, Bates College.