Dates and films set for first ever Cleveland Silent Film Festival

The dates and line-up of films have been announced for the first ever Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium. The multi-film, multi-day series of events begins February 13 and runs through February 20. It looks to be an impressive event. A complete listing of festival and colloquium events is below. Ticketing information is listed with each event. Consult with each venue about its COVID-19 safety policies and admission requirements. More information HERE.

A consortium of five area institutions has come together to put on the week-long Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium. The 2022 Cleveland Silent Film Festival is a new venture planning exciting programs of silent era classics accompanied by top silent film music specialists as well as workshops for area musicians interested in learning to play for silent films. 

 The newly formed Festival will screen four feature films, and a few shorts. However, the main attraction or "star" of the Festival is not a film or actor or director, but rather the Cleveland-born film score composer, J.S. Zamecnik, whose music will be featured and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. I have seen them accompany a number of silent films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and they really are outstanding. I also own the CD pictured at the bottom of this post. If there name sounds familiar, it is likely because they provided the musical accompaniment to the KINO Lorber release of the 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life.

FILM FESTIVAL AND COLLOQUIUM SCHEDULE

3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13
Hermit Club (1629 Dodge Ct., Cleveland)
“From Hermit Club to Hollywood: A Concert of Music by J.S. Zamecnik and Dvorak”
Featuring members of the Cleveland Orchestra, led by violinist Isabel Trautwein. Rodney Sauer, director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, will be sitting in on piano for the Zamecnik Piano Trio.
Tickets, $40, at eventbrite.com.

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15
Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space (10 E. College St., Oberlin)
Short silent films accompanied live by Oberlin Conservatory of Music students
Free admission.

8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16
Apollo Theater (19 E. College St., Oberlin)
Film: “Steamboat Bill, Jr.”
Free admission.

 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18
Harkness Chapel (11200 Bellflower Road, Cleveland)
“Silent Film Scoring for Working Musicians,” with Rodney Sauer, director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Daniel Goldmark, director of the Center for Popular Music Studies at CWRU
Free admission.

7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque (11610 Euclid Ave., Cleveland)
Film: “Wings” (1927), with a newly recorded soundtrack of the score heard at the film's NYC premiere in 1927
Tickets, $12, at cia.edu/cinematheque

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
Film concert: “The Wedding March” (1929), with live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Tickets, $15, at cia.edu/cinematheque

3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
Film concert: “Sunrise” (1927), with an original score inspired by Zamecnik’s music, performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Tickets, $15, at cia.edu/cinematheque

Today: Louise Brooks' in Beggars of Life screens in Greeley, Colorado

Later today, the sensational 1928 Louise Brooks' film Beggars of Life will be shown in Greeley, Colorado with live musical accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (pictured below). This 2 pm screening will take place at the Hensel Phelps Theatre - 701 10th Ave, Greeley, CO 80631. More information about this event may be found HERE.

In this gripping film set in American hobo subculture, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen take to riding the rails to escape a manslaughter charge. Pre-depression America is shown as a place of formless threats and constant danger. Long unavailable, Beggars of Life was recently restored by the George Eastman Museum, and is now widely regarded as Louise Brooks’ finest American film.

This silent film will be accompanied by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Based in Louisville, Colorado, this quintet has become famous for its sensitive and powerful resurrection of the lost repertoire played by silent film orchestras. Through live appearances throughout America and dozens of recordings, the Mont Alto orchestra shows that the golden age of Hollywood music actually came before “talkies.” Mont Alto will be performing the score that they were commissioned to record for the recent Blu-ray release of this film on the Kino-Lorber label.

“…in “Beggars of Life,” Rodney Sauer and company are once again authoritative and expressively pitch-perfect. But the players are not there to lead, distract or showboat, but to underscore, strictly in partnership with the film.” — Bright Lights Film Journal.

Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and Beggars of Life? My book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, as well as the DVD / Blu-ray of the film from Kino Lorber, are the perfect compliment to one another. And what's more, the DVD, featuring the best copy of the film available anywhere as well as the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra score, also includes an informative commentary by your's truly!

My 106-page book on Beggars of Life looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), Beggars of Life is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (played by Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). Beggars of Life showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.” This first ever study of Beggars of Life includes more than 50 little seen images, and a foreword by actor and author William Wellman, Jr. (the director's son).

If you haven't secured a copy of either the book or the DVD / Blu-ray, why not do so today? Each is an essential addition to your Louise Brooks collection. And what's more, my book is available around the world on Amazon.