Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium

 I have been busy during my long absence: Moving, new job, back in school, etc., but one of the most exciting updates I have to share is that I'm now a board member of the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium!

I'm very excited to be a part of this, and it's been a fun and rewarding endeavor. We had our second festival last year, and are looking to expand our programming this year and offer more events (other than just the annual festival). Our founder, Emily Laurance, has just been amazing in putting this together herself these last two years, and now she has a great board to help back her up and really get silents the attention they deserve in the Cleveland area.

If you live in Northeast Ohio, then please sign up for our mailing list to be notified of events once they're scheduled.

Long-lost Clara Bow Silent Found!

 I want to say it's an amazing story, but silent film fans know that copies of long-lost full films (or even bits and pieces) show up in the strangest places...

The Pill Pounder, one of Clara's short films, was recently found in Omaha, NE, and sold to her biographer, David Stenn. He's paid for its restoration and the film will have its premiere at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival April 10-14.

Update, Cleveland Silent Film, and animation link

 Hey, look at me, blogging for the first time in how long??

What can I say; I've been busy.

Anyways, what prompted me to start up again is 1) I've been working on updating the site (I know, right??) and 2) I am happy to say I'm on the Board of Directors for the Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium, so I have started regularly scouring the web for news to post on our FB page.

Which leads me to this post, from today's NYTimes.com on a young man who has a deep library of silent animation. This is a gift link, so use it wisely!

Happy Holidays, everyone, and see you (more regularly) in 2024!

The Passion of Joan of Arc

The New York Times has a review of this digitally restored masterpiece now playing at the Film Forum in New York.

It took some 500 years for the Roman Catholic Church to declare Joan a saint. “The Passion of Joan of Arc” was canonized more or less instantly. If novels like “Madame Bovary” or “Crime and Punishment” are must-reads, then “The Passion of Joan of Arc” is a cinematic must-see.

Read the review

The Secrets of Silent-Film Footage Found Buried in the Earth

I love when silent films are found, as they tend to be found in the most interesting places: Attics, yard sales...and now in the frozen tundra of the Yukon.

From the New Yorker's Facebook page:

In 1978, a construction worker in Dawson City was excavating the site of a new recreation center when he discovered reels of film poking out from the hard-packed terrain.

The result is a film from Bill Morrison, "Dawson City: Frozen Time," that looks at the surviving films and reconstructs the extraordinary arcs of political and cultural history that are latent in them.

Myself, I'd love to know what films were found and if they're available, but nonetheless the film sounds interesting.

• Read the article

Limited Edition

You know you want this.

Buy it now.

Buy the shirt.

Help the Library of Congress

I received an email from the Library of Congress. Every week they post movie stills that they ask the public for help in identifying. This week it's silent films. If you know any of these, they'd love to hear!

"This week, in our ongoing series of unknown movie stills, we go way back to the silent days of filmmaking. We hope you can help us identify these performers or the productions they are in. As always, “clicking” on the images below will increase their size. Please put any suggestions you have in the “comments” section below. As the images are positively ID’ed, we’ll update this blog. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!