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.

Become a Member

By

East Side, West Side

“When you’re in New York, you’re in the whole world. There’s nothing you can’t find in New York,” Allan Dwan told interviewer Joe Adamson in 1979. “I always had a great respect for it. It’s a dirty place, it’s this and that, but it’s the place.”  East Side, West Side was Dwan’s valedictory ode to … [Read more...] about East Side, West Side

By

Piano Man: Utsav Lal Lends His Virtuosity to Live Cinema

This interview was published in conjunction with the screenings of The Opportunist and I Was Born, But... at SFSFF 2024 Utsav Lal has crossed many borders, some of which you can hear in his voice. Speaking the Indian-accented English of his native Delhi, flecked with Americanisms from his adopted … [Read more...] about Piano Man: Utsav Lal Lends His Virtuosity to Live Cinema

By

Gentlemen Gone Rogue

This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Sea Hawk at SFSFF 2024 Few characters are more beloved in adventure films than the aristocrat taking a walk on the wild side. As W.S. Gilbert put it, “They are no members of the common throng; They are all noblemen who have gone … [Read more...] about Gentlemen Gone Rogue

By

The Sea Hawk

What connection could there possibly have been between Rafael Sabatini and Buster Keaton? Sabatini was hailed as a brilliant writer of popular fare and, for the adaptation of his 1915 novel about a 16th century English nobleman who takes on a new identity as a fearsome corsair, Buster Keaton loaned … [Read more...] about The Sea Hawk

By

The Lady

The 1920s was a time of great upheaval with people shaken and shattered by the Great War trying to forget and move on. Excess was the byword of the day, and women especially were experimenting with free love, free-flowing booze, and more economic freedom as the workforce absorbed them in large … [Read more...] about The Lady

By

Oh! What a Nurse!

Recently, the mystery surrounding the biological father of Sydney Chaplin, Charlie’s older half-brother, has been solved. Researcher Barry Anthony has finally identified the apocryphal Sidney John Hawke, wealthy London businessman, as just this individual, lending credence to Sydney’s perpetual … [Read more...] about Oh! What a Nurse!

By

Charlie Murray: “The Famous Irish Comedian”

This feature was published in conjunction with the screenings of Dancing Mothers (with The Pill Pounder) and The Gorilla at SFSFF 2024 Although overlooked today, Charlie Murray appeared in a touch fewer than three hundred films from 1912 to 1940, making one- and two-reel comedies at Biograph, … [Read more...] about Charlie Murray: “The Famous Irish Comedian”