(Local artist Joel Chadd during the first Song of Sunset event at Volcanic Theater Pub in 2025 | Photo by Brian Craig Hinderberger)
Offering up a provocative evening of cinema, live music, and dynamic discourse, Bend documentary filmmaker and folk rock musician Brian Craig Hinderberger’s Song of Sunset multimedia happening arrives for an entrancing cultural event this fall at Silver Moon Brewing.
It’s a celebration of old-school analog tech, underground history, and the rich treasure that is the hallmark of Pacific Northwest imagination. Hinderberger is a hyphenate artist dabbling in many creative streams, first as a local acoustic guitarist performing under the stage name Ghost of Brian Craig. He also exists in a broader dimension as a documentarian whose recent projects include two fresh short films. Cosmic Heirloom: Buried 400 Years is an Oregon Short Film Festival Award Finalist and an official selection of the 2026 Eastern Oregon Film Festival. Salvaged Reverb: Inside the Legendary Robert Lang Studios brings audiences inside the handmade Pacific Northwest recording space associated with generations of influential artists.
It all kicks off on October 24, 2026 for the premiere of the Song of Sunset: Underground experience which arrives at Silver Moon Brewing from 6:30pm to 10pm. The full program consists of four indie shorts, live performances by Joe Estrada, Ghost of Brian Craig, and Sho Rilla, in addition to a pair of Oregon Film-sponsored panels following the screenings. Supported by the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund, a project of Visit Bend, the stimulating show is also a charity affair with five percent of the proceeds from this cool Bend gathering benefitting HÚE: Hearts Unknown.
As officially described by Hinderberger, Song of Sunset: Underground defines itself as a “sequenced live-cinema experience built around independent short films, intimate music performances, and post-film conversations. Rather than presenting the elements as separate blocks, QLab coordinates screen content, film playback, transition music, atmospheric lighting, and production cues so the evening moves as one continuous story. The through-line is the value of authentic human voices, cultural memory, creative spaces, and the small stage.”
“We started Song of Sunset in 2025 when I was returning back into documentaries after doing a film about longevity and technology,” Hinderberger tells Cascade Business News. “I wanted to do a film about music and a cultural exploration of this small-stage thing that we have here in Bend. I interviewed some of my colleagues Eric Leadbetter, Erin Cole-Baker and Joel Chadd and we created a 15-minute piece that got accepted and awarded at film festivals. Then I went to the Volcanic Theater and Pub and told them I wanted to do a screening that involved the musicians in the film. They gave me the date, we threw it together, Breedlove sponsored it, and it worked!”
Salvaged Reverb is conceived as an intimate portrait of Robert Lang, the visionary builder behind one of the Pacific Northwest’s most distinguished recording studios. Constructed over decades through instinct, reclaimed materials, barter, experimentation, and determination, Robert Lang Studios became a creative home for acclaimed artists such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Candlebox, Peter Frampton, and Dave Matthews.
Cosmic Heirloom examines the long and trippy history of psilocybin mushrooms, from their tribal ceremonial use among Indigenous peoples to centuries of suppression, misunderstanding, rediscovery, and modern scientific applications. Showcasing writer and presenter David Moss, the short documentary explores how ancient knowledge becomes obscured through colonization, prohibition, and cultural fear, and what occurs when that knowledge reemerges.
“It eventually bridged over to Silver Moon where we continued with another film with other musicians,” he notes on the show’s organic growth. “I applied for a grant with the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund and was awarded a marketing grant. That’s when it really evolved into a whole new world where I started producing the films about the history of psilocybin and the other 13-minute documentary about the legendary Robert Lang Studios. Both were created over this last year. It all came together to create our incredible interactive storytelling music event that’s highly produced and highly entertaining. There’s never a moment where it’s going to get dull.”
For tickets, questions, and more information for October’s immersive Song of Sunset: Underground evening in Bend please visit the Song of Sunset online hub at songofsunset.com/underground or call Silver Moon Brewing at 541-388-8331.
