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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Sparrows

Sparrows is equal parts Gothic thriller and sentimental melodrama. Set in a swamp in the Deep South, it’s the story of a “baby farm” whose evil head keeps the children in squalor; spunky Mary protects and ultimately saves the children from his evil clutches. The set for the farm was built on four … [Read more...] about Sparrows

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The Spanish Dancer

When Pola Negri arrived in the United States in 1922 after a spectacular career in German cinema, the Polish star was the first European actress to be signed to a contract by a major Hollywood studio. Already famous for the films she made with director Ernst Lubitsch, she was glamorous, exotic, the … [Read more...] about The Spanish Dancer

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South: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

Born in 1885 in the Sydney suburb of Glebe, James Francis “Frank” Hurley was an independent, ambitious lad with the uncommon initiative to teach himself photography. When the young art form crossed over to mainstream accessibility with the postcard fad in the early years of the 20th century, Hurley … [Read more...] about South: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

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The Soul of Youth

In the first decade of the 20th century, close to 6 million American children were not attending school (U.S. population at the time was 76 million). Many of these were juvenile delinquents who needed a place to go, a place to learn, and the newly established picture houses became home away from … [Read more...] about The Soul of Youth

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So’s Your Old Man

In 1941 W.C. Fields made his final feature film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Critic James Agee, in his review for Time magazine, called him “one of the funniest men on earth” and went on to proclaim, “the great comedian can play straight better and more firmly than anyone in the business.” … [Read more...] about So’s Your Old Man

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Song of the Fishermen

Wang Renmei’s star was rising fast. Her first film appearance in 1931 had ended up on the cutting room floor. But within the next two years she triumphed in two films: Wild Rose (1932) and The Morning of a Metropolis (1933). Her next film turned out to be a motion picture with international … [Read more...] about Song of the Fishermen

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The Son of the Sheik

In the 1920s Bedouin chieftains prowled the movie screens much as vampires do today. “There are more sheiks here than in the Sahara,” complained a Photoplay reporter in 1923. Perhaps the craze for the desert romance was fed by Lowell Thomas who exhibited footage of the dashing World War I exploits … [Read more...] about The Son of the Sheik