Feature

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Lost World at SFSFF 2017 In the annals of film history, Willis O’Brien is considered a visionary in the field of stop-motion animation, most famous for his state-of-the-art monsters in 1933’s King Kong. His experimentation with … [Read more...] about The Dinosaur Wars: Willis O’Brien, Herbert M. Dawley, and the Articulated Effigy

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of L'Inferno at SFSFF 2019 From rollicking adventures to cinematic sermons, silent film portrayals of Hell and Satan sizzle with innovation, dark spectacle, and insight into the shadowy side of human nature. MERRY FROLICS OF … [Read more...] about Demonic Visions: When Silents Go to the Devil

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans at SFSFF 2011 Behind the film’s artistry, technical innovations, and outsize budget, Sunrise is ultimately the story of two people. A woman from the city takes her summer holiday in a quaint lakeside … [Read more...] about The Curator and the Composer: Creating a New Song for Two Humans

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Get Your Man at SFSFF 2017 A misplaced scrap of the “A Little from Lots” column in a 1927 edition of Film Daily obscures a review with, among other sundries, a correction in bold type: “A newspaper report to the effect that Dorothy … [Read more...] about Covering Dorothy Arzner

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Dumb Girl of Portici at SFSFF 2017 What’s the point of having a cast of thousands if they can’t rise up in revolt once in a while? Filmmakers quickly realized that masses of extras on the screen would attract masses of customers … [Read more...] about Casts of Thousands in Revolt

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a golden age for world fairs, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, is among the most celebrated. Officially, the exposition commemorated the completion of the Panama Canal and all that this new trade … [Read more...] about California Welcomes the World: The Centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

This feature was published in conjunction with the screenings of The Cameraman and Our Hospitality at SFSFF 2019 As a tyke Buster Keaton developed the necessary body calluses to take his own pratfalls. As one of Three Keatons on vaudeville, he was cast as the “Human Mop,” variously … [Read more...] about Bust’d Buster