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Congratulations SFSFF on twenty-five glorious years! It’s difficult to pick just one memory to highlight from all of the magnificent experiences I’ve had at the festival over the years. I’ve seen so many astonishing films, heard so much breathtaking musical accompaniment, and met so many wonderful … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Introducing Lois Weber

Less than half of the Swedish silent fiction film production has survived to our day and age, but every now and then a previously thought lost film turns up on a shelf in another archive as uncatalogued elements are being inspected and identified, or in more unlikely places such as in an attic of a … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Coloring in the Frames

Watching Abel Gance’s Napoleon at the Paramount was an experience I still think about more than ten years later. Great live music—and the three-screen “Polyvision” ending was unforgettable! Then again, it’s hard to beat Buster Keaton. Buster and Felix the Cat was a great pairing. Oh, but what about … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Hats Off to Live Cinema!

There’s much to love about the festival. The Castro Theatre is a treasure, the staff and volunteers are welcoming, the programming is an entertaining mix of the familiar and new discoveries, the sponsors, donors, and board members are truly invested in the festival’s success, and the variety of … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Know Your Audience

A roadshow engagement of Around the World in 80 Days in 1957 at San Francisco’s Coronet Theatre opened with newscaster Edward R. Murrow introducing Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon. My parents took me. I was just a kid, but I’ve been hooked on silents ever since. Back then the most I could do was … [Read more...] about 25 Years: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

I grew up watching silent films at fairgrounds, on PBS, on 8mm and gravitated toward silent comedies and loved learning about how they were made. I particularly admired Buster Keaton and was impressed with how his comedy made me feel because he never smiled, and I appreciated the artistry of that … [Read more...] about 25 Years: VARIETÉ Come to Life

I have had fantastic experiences at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, both as a presenter and a viewer. I’ve been introduced to several films that are new favorites, such as A Cottage on Dartmoor and Tonka of the Gallows, films I never would’ve been able to see otherwise. But my absolute peak … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Peak Silent

What do I like about the San Francisco Silent Film Festival? Apart from the fabulous Castro cinema with its huge screen, gorgeous décor, perfect sightlines, and refreshingly sturdy balcony (for a cinema of its age)—hmmm ... everything. The people, the films, the mattresses. My revelatory … [Read more...] about 25 Years: Adventures from the Archives