New York based multi-instrumentalist Mas Koga developed his worldview at an early age. Soon after his birth in Chiba Japan, his family relocated to the US due to his father’s work, and he spent this adolescent years moving around multiple times. By the time he graduated high school, he had lived in … [Read more...] about Mas Koga
William Lewis
A classically trained pianist, organist, and composer William Lewis made his SFSFF in 2022. Mentored by festival regular Donald Sosin, he has been writing for silent film since 2014 (at age ten), striving to create both passionate and (mostly) historically appropriate scores. SFSFF … [Read more...] about William Lewis
Anvil Orchestra
As Anvil Orchestra, Terry Donahue and Roger Clark Miller transform the silent film viewing experience with their big percussive sound. Formerly of the Alloy Orchestra, Donahue (drums, percussion, and accordion) and Miller (keyboard/synthesizer) continue the famed orchestra’s tradition of innovative … [Read more...] about Anvil Orchestra
Buster’s Mechanized Mayhem
What a magical place Buster Keaton’s mind must have been. Most people might be tempted to regard a chair as merely a chair, or an automobile as simply an automobile. Keaton looked at them and beheld endless comic possibilities. And not only possibilities for the objects themselves, but also for the … [Read more...] about Buster’s Mechanized Mayhem
Pour Don Carlos
In 1920, when Musidora, beloved worldwide as the villainous Irma Vep, announced her plans to adapt the popular novel Pour Don Carlos and play its heroine Allegria, she took pains to assure her fans that she would deliver the thrills they’d come to expect. “I promise you that Allegria will kill at … [Read more...] about Pour Don Carlos
The Cheat
On December 13, 1915, The Cheat, produced at the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, directed by acclaimed theater director Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Fannie Ward, renowned actress from the London and New York stages, made its debut in the United States. Depicting an interracial relationship … [Read more...] about The Cheat
Show People
1928 was a frightening year for the film industry. The first feature with synchronized dialogue, The Jazz Singer, had premiered the previous October, casting doubt on the ability of silent films to endure as an art form. Stars feared for their careers while studio bosses worried about their bottom … [Read more...] about Show People
The Toll of the Sea
The greatest depiction of a woman crying on the silver screen is one you’ve likely never seen. You may be tempted to call up the image of Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s stoic tears in The Passion of Joan of Arc, or the mesmeric power of the saline streams down Anna Karina’s face in Vivre Sa Vie. Both … [Read more...] about The Toll of the Sea