Feature

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of No Man's Gold at SFSFF 2018 Not for nothing these popular, if often cheaply made, westerns were nicknamed Horse Operas, requiring of actors one paramount skill, ridership, or at least the ability to sit convincingly in the … [Read more...] about Tony the Wonder Horse

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Cameraman at SFSFF 2019 The hard-working piano player is an iconic image of silent cinema and with good reason: a 1922 poll of theater owners showed that solo piano was far and away the most popular form of musical accompaniment. … [Read more...] about Strike Up the Orchestra

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of A Page of Madness at SFSFF 2017 SECRETS OF A SOUL (G.W. Pabst, 1926) Like Teinosuke Kinugasa’s A Page of Madness, Secrets of a Soul probes the anguish of a man fearful for his family’s future. Fortunately, Martin Fellman can afford … [Read more...] about Silent Scream: Going Mad Without Sound

A fragment of Wallace Reid’s otherwise lost western The Tribal Outlaw (Bison 101, 1912). The charming eight-minute narrative that tries to explain the inspiration for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (1909). William and Irene Finley’s playful wildlife film, Chumming with Chipmunks (1921). These are some … [Read more...] about Silent Film, Orphan Film: Saving, Studying, and Screening Neglected Cinema

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Il Fuoco at SFSFF 2011 When on a shopping spree for anguish, rapture, martyrdom, comas, counts, rapes, bastards, orphans, dogaressas, philtres, sirens, suicides, mistaken identities, flower festivals, and sudden fatal loves—even a … [Read more...] about Silent Divas of the Italian Cinema

Outsiders and Outcasts of Silent Cinema From Chaplin’s Tramp to Hart’s good-bad man, from Pickford’s ragamuffins to Brooks’s lost girls, many of silent cinema’s most enduring images were of outcasts and outsiders. Whether portrayed with slapstick humor, grim realism, or experimental lyricism, … [Read more...] about Silent but not Silenced

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Destiny at SFSFF 2016 Thea von Harbou Writes Fritz Lang 1920 Das wandernde Bild (The Wandering Shadow) 1921 Vier um die Frau (Four Around the Woman), a.k.a. Kämpfende Herzen 1921 Der müde Tod (Destiny) 1922 Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler … [Read more...] about The Scriptwriter and the Moviemaker

At the end of the 20th century, Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons had a dream to share their love of silent cinema with fellow San Franciscans and they founded the Silent Film Festival. Fifteen years later, the reality of their amazing creation has outstripped their wildest dreams. Today, the … [Read more...] about Salmons Talks!