Here it is - the program announcement for the 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival! The eighteen programs coming to the Castro this July 14 - 17 feature beautiful new restorations, original commissioned scores, dispatches from the preservation front, masterpieces from the canon, and rarely screened gems. There's not one to be missed. Some highlights of this year's festival:


What better way to begin than with the presentation of an amazing discovery: UPSTREAM. For Opening Night, we celebrate the repatriation of this film to the U.S. after decades in New Zealand, and - most incredibly - the return of an early film from one of the great American directors, John Ford. This droll backstage comedy will play with another film from the New Zealand collection, WHY HUSBANDS FLIRT, both accompanied by the Sosin Ensemble.

No matter how many times you may have seen SUNRISE, this masterpiece is always a revelation. This July, we bring you F.W. Murnau's exquisite film in association with world-renowned silent film preservationist Paolo Cherchi Usai. Usai has worked with
electric guitarist Giovanni Spinelli to create the exciting original score that Spinelli will perform in accompaniment.

Last year's VARIATIONS ON A THEME panel set off hours of lively discussion and debate about approaches to silent film accompaniment. This summer's panel, moderated by Bay Area musician Jill Tracy and featuring all of the festival musicians, will continue and expand the conversation.


The Matti Bye Ensemble returns! In a collaboration between the Silent Film Festival and the Headlands Center for the Arts, the ensemble has been composing three original scores since their residency at the Headlands this spring. This summer, they will unveil their work in their accompaniment of THE BLIZZARD, THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE, and Closing Night film HE WHO GETS SLAPPED.

And more, of course. The precision and quiet profundity of Yasujiro Ozu's work is in full form for I WAS BORN, BUT..., accompanied by Stephen Horne. Marlene Dietrich is entirely the Dietrich we know and love in THE WOMAN MEN YEARN FOR, with accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. An agitprop film condemned for its artistry, Mikhail Kalatozov's THE NAIL IN THE BOOT, accompanied by Stephen Horne, is a rarely seen film that truly deserves the big screen. And for the program WILD AND WEIRD, Alloy Orchestra accompanies an eclectic mix of fantastical shorts.
Here it is - the program announcement for the 16th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival! The eighteen programs coming to the Castro this July 14 - 17 feature beautiful new restorations, original commissioned scores, dispatches from the preservation front, masterpieces from the canon, and rarely screened gems. There's not one to be missed. Some highlights of this year's festival:


What better way to begin than with the presentation of an amazing discovery: UPSTREAM. For Opening Night, we celebrate the repatriation of this film to the U.S. after decades in New Zealand, and - most incredibly - the return of an early film from one of the great American directors, John Ford. This droll backstage comedy will play with another film from the New Zealand collection, WHY HUSBANDS FLIRT, both accompanied by the Sosin Ensemble.

No matter how many times you may have seen SUNRISE, this masterpiece is always a revelation. This July, we bring you F.W. Murnau's exquisite film in association with world-renowned silent film preservationist Paolo Cherchi Usai. Usai has worked with
electric guitarist Giovanni Spinelli to create the exciting original score that Spinelli will perform in accompaniment.

Last year's VARIATIONS ON A THEME panel set off hours of lively discussion and debate about approaches to silent film accompaniment. This summer's panel, moderated by Bay Area musician Jill Tracy and featuring all of the festival musicians, will continue and expand the conversation.


The Matti Bye Ensemble returns! In a collaboration between the Silent Film Festival and the Headlands Center for the Arts, the ensemble has been composing three original scores since their residency at the Headlands this spring. This summer, they will unveil their work in their accompaniment of THE BLIZZARD, THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE, and Closing Night film HE WHO GETS SLAPPED.

And more, of course. The precision and quiet profundity of Yasujiro Ozu's work is in full form for I WAS BORN, BUT..., accompanied by Stephen Horne. Marlene Dietrich is entirely the Dietrich we know and love in THE WOMAN MEN YEARN FOR, with accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. An agitprop film condemned for its artistry, Mikhail Kalatozov's THE NAIL IN THE BOOT, accompanied by Stephen Horne, is a rarely seen film that truly deserves the big screen. And for the program WILD AND WEIRD, Alloy Orchestra accompanies an eclectic mix of fantastical shorts.