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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So This is Paris

By the early 1920s, German director Ernst Lubitsch had established a reputation as a master of two genres—grand historical epics and sparkling comedies. American audiences happily paid to see his films as well, and superstar Mary Pickford, eager to leave behind little girl roles for sophisticated … [Read more...] about So This is Paris

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Shooting Stars

Near the beginning of Shooting Stars, Anthony Asquith’s directorial debut, he boldly declares his infatuation with the movies in an astonishing sequence. It begins with a tender love scene between a cowboy on a horse and a golden-haired beauty perched in a blossom-laden tree. As he rides off into … [Read more...] about Shooting Stars

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Sadie Thompson

Sadie Thompson had the great Raoul Walsh as director and costar, but studying the history of the film leaves little doubt that Gloria Swanson has a strong claim as its auteur. She jumped through hoops to acquire the property, fought the censors to get it produced, cowrote the script with Walsh, … [Read more...] about Sadie Thompson

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Riding the Rails

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Beggars of Life at SFSFF 2016 Female Hoboes in American Cinema Hoboes were America’s first freelance workers, rambling across the country in search of employment. Industrialization in the northern United States after the Civil War … [Read more...] about Riding the Rails

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Our Actress in Berlin

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Italian Straw Hat at SFSFF 2016 The Mostly True Life of Olga Chekhova When historian Antony Beevor went looking for the truth behind the improbable life of Olga Chekhova, he was frustrated by her misleading autobiography, going so … [Read more...] about Our Actress in Berlin

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Nanook of the North

In the language of the Inuit people, “nanook” or “nanuq” means “polar bear,” as in the greatest hunting animal of the north, a thousand pounds, aggressive but stealthy, and a spiritual ideal for the Inuit. Yet in the movie Nanook of the North there are no polar bears. One reason for that has to be … [Read more...] about Nanook of the North

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Mothers of Men

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the issue of voting rights for American women was widely debated across the nation. Five states, including California, granted women the right to vote in the early 1910s, several more states held referenda on the issue, and Congress debated women’s … [Read more...] about Mothers of Men