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San Francisco Silent Film Festival

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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  • Program Notes
  • Festival 2018

San Francisco, 1906

Program Notes by San Francisco Silent Film Festival

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 Kiehn, the same Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum historian who had determined that A Trip Down Market Street was filmed so close to the estimated eight-point temblor that rocked the City by the Bay. The recovered footage is actually a composite of three films, showing not only from Fifth Street down to the Ferry Building, but also City Hall and, in a section tinted in red, the demolition of Prager’s Department Store at Jones Street. Restored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in partnership with Silver Shadows Gallery Ltd and the Essanay museum, these rarities are a small portion of the almost two hours of footage that the Miles Brothers shot of the devastated city.

Presented at SFSFF 2018 (with the feature Trappola) with live music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

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Restored by SFSFF in 2018

About the Restoration

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