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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Talk About Funny!

Featuring two modern jesters inspired by the great comedians of the silent era Larry Pisoni cofounded The Pickle Family Circus, the first “new circus” to rely on clowns, jugglers, and acrobats without animals, in 1974. He taught clowning at the Ringling Brothers Clown College, and appeared in … [Read more...] about Talk About Funny!

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San Francisco, 1906

The same Miles Brothers who shot A Trip Down Market Street just four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake also took their camera on another trip down the city’s main artery to survey the ruins. This nine-minute segment, recently recovered at a California flea market, was identified by David … [Read more...] about San Francisco, 1906

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The Ring

The Ring was Hitchcock’s sixth film as a director and his first at British International Pictures, and, remarkably, his third film within a year. After directing Downhill and Easy Virtue, two stage adaptations for Gainsborough, Hitchcock was frustrated and jumped at the chance to develop an idea of … [Read more...] about The Ring

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The Pleasure Garden

The 25-year-old Alfred Hitchcock had done nearly every job on the studio floor by the time he was given his first directing job by the Gainsborough studio boss Michael Balcon—he had designed titles, written scripts, art directed and had been assistant director to the studio’s most successful … [Read more...] about The Pleasure Garden

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Napoleon

Presented March 24, 25, 31, April 1 2012 at the Paramount, Oakland with live music by Carl Davis conducting the Oakland East Bay Symphony "A MAJOR EVENT! Don't wait for it to come to a theater near you — getting Gance's magnum opus on the screen is a Herculean task!" — Martin Scorsese, Vanity … [Read more...] about Napoleon

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The Manxman

Set in a remote Isle of Man fishing community (but shot in Cornwall), The Manxman is Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate silent film and one of the best and most mature works of his early career. The film was adapted from the bestselling novel by Sir Hall Caine, published in 1894, which had sold half a … [Read more...] about The Manxman

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Magic and Mirth

A Selection of Enchanting Short Silent Films In Fond Memory of Film Preservationist David Shepard (1940–2017) The San Francisco Silent Film Festival owes an enormous debt of gratitude to film collector and preservationist extraordinaire David Shepard, a valued member of the festival advisory … [Read more...] about Magic and Mirth