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San Francisco Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record.

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2003

January 20, 2020 By kathy

Tepeyac

Before Cortés defeated Moctezuma and the Spanish colonized what is now Mexico, Tepeyac—meaning “hilltop”—was sanctuary to Tonantzin, the Aztec goddess of the earth, corn, and fertility. Once Spain defeated the Aztecs, the Catholic Church began to hold sway over the souls of the indigenous people. … [Read more...] about Tepeyac

Filed Under: Essay

January 20, 2020 By kathy

Talk About Funny!

Featuring two modern jesters inspired by the great comedians of the silent era Larry Pisoni cofounded The Pickle Family Circus, the first “new circus” to rely on clowns, jugglers, and acrobats without animals, in 1974. He taught clowning at the Ringling Brothers Clown College, and appeared in … [Read more...] about Talk About Funny!

Filed Under: Program Notes

January 17, 2020 By kathy

The Smiling Madame Beudet

The time has come, I believe, to listen in silence to our own song, to try to express our own personal vision, to define our own sensibility, to make our own way. Let us learn to look, let us learn to see, let us learn to feel. —Germaine Dulac, Let Us Have Faith (1919) Germaine Dulac didn’t … [Read more...] about The Smiling Madame Beudet

Filed Under: Essay

January 16, 2020 By kathy

The Penalty

In or out of makeup, the face of Lon Chaney is one of the silent screen’s most compelling. Unique among film personalities, Chaney was a character actor who used his physical dexterity and mastery of makeup not to conceal, but to add depth to his powerful performances. In doing so, he became one of … [Read more...] about The Penalty

Filed Under: Essay

January 13, 2020 By kathy

Go West

Go West was an unusual film for Buster Keaton. With its portrayal of a down-and-out wanderer who becomes a reluctant hero, Go West could have been a vehicle for Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. While the film wasn’t one of Keaton’s personal favorites, it was praised by critics and did well at the box … [Read more...] about Go West

Filed Under: Essay

January 10, 2020 By kathy

The Crowd

Director King Vidor (1894–1982) had a long and distinguished career in both silent and sound films, but his masterpiece is unquestionably The Crowd. Within the simple framework of the life of an ordinary man trying to make his way in the big city, Vidor created a landmark American film. Vidor … [Read more...] about The Crowd

Filed Under: Essay

January 10, 2020 By kathy

Claire

At the turn of the century, while others were worrying about the millennium bug, San Francisco filmmaker Rock Ross was creating a short film (Stupor Mundi) in defiance of the new age, and producer-director Milford Thomas was making a silent movie with the same type of camera used by cinematographer … [Read more...] about Claire

Filed Under: Essay

January 9, 2020 By kathy

Carmen

Carmen the tempestuous gypsy made her first appearance in an 1845 novella by Prosper Merimée, and this tale of the treacherous cigarette factory girl who discards her lover for a bullfighter has inspired countless operas, plays, ballets, musicals, and more than 30 films. Georges Bizet’s 1875 … [Read more...] about Carmen

Filed Under: Essay

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