Interview

An Interview with Jon Wengström of the Swedish Film Institute Home to the masterpieces of Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, among other treasures of Sweden’s Golden Age of silent cinema, the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) has been a vital ally for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for … [Read more...] about The State of Preservation

In 2018, Guenter Buchwald celebrates his fortieth anniversary as a film accompanist. Since 1978, this acclaimed composer, conductor, musical director, and multi-instrumentalist has played for some three thousand films, making him both a pioneer and a veteran. He has performed as a solo artist, as … [Read more...] about The Musical Mind of Guenter Buchwald

2015 SF Silent Film Festival Awardee Serge Bromberg Serge Bromberg is an impresario, a ballyhooer of cinema in the best tradition of Barnum and Bailey. Fortunate audiences around the world know him for his Retour de Flamme clip shows, during which he may burn a bit of nitrate film stock on stage … [Read more...] about The Man in the Center Ring: Serge Bromberg Saves Cinema

For more than thirty years, Timothy Brock has made a name for himself as one of the few composer-conductors who specialize in music for silent film. Vogue magazine has called him “the silent-film music guru.” In large part, Brock’s musical life has focused on his own compositions as well as on … [Read more...] about Keeping Time with Timothy Brock

Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra Rummaging through a collection of musical scores at the University of Colorado for his ballroom  dance band, Rodney Sauer came across some silent-era music cues donated by the widow of music director Al Layton. Leader at the time of the Mont … [Read more...] about It Just Has a Sound

Founders Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons Look Back at the Early Days of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival It takes more than a passion for silent film to put on a festival. Melissa Chittick had a film degree from UC-Santa Barbara, and Stephen Salmons had been making Super-8 silent films … [Read more...] about Faces in the Dark

This interview was published in conjunction with the screening of Body and Soul at SFSFF 2017 As DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid), Paul D. Miller has been a trailblazer in the realms of hip hop and trip hop and a master of the remix. He’s also a philosopher, teacher, historian, science fiction … [Read more...] about DJ Spooky Mixes It Up for Body and Soul