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The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre presents: THE SILENT TREATMENT: MOLLY O. (1921) - starring Mabel Normand. Produced by Mack Sennett. Molly falls in love with a famous bachelor, and when she and his fiancee wear a similar costume to a masked charity ball, Molly is thrust into his arms.

Sherlock Jr.,” 1924, Cohen Media, 45 min. Buster Keaton’s sublime comedy about reality and illusion, in which projectionist Buster literally dreams himself into the detective movie he’s screening! A film with myriad technical feats (including the illusion of Keaton “climbing” into a movie screen). Keaton reportedly broke his neck during filming while performing a dangerous stunt on a ladder hanging over a giant water basin.  THE CAMERAMAN, 1928, Warner Bros., 69 min. Dir. Buster Keaton. Because of his huge crush on Sally,…

The UCLA Film and Television Archive Festival of Preservation In-person: Jere Guldin, senior film preservationist, UCLA Film & Television Archive.Live musical accompaniment provided by Cliff Retallick.  My Best Girl  (1927)  After nearly 15 years as the silver screen’s reigning “Queen of the Movies,” Mary Pickford lovingly concluded her silent movie career with one of her best films—the utterly charming romantic comedy, My Best Girl.  Featuring future husband Charles “Buddy” Rogers as her leading man, Pickford shines as a department store…

Retroformat returns with a tribute to Sir Charles Chaplin, featuring an array of classic shorts, including the immortal Tramp's debut in Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) and a Centennial Screening of The Tramp (1915).  Plus...Hollywood's classic first feature-length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) starring Chaplin, Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand, directed by Mack Sennett.  150 minutes.

It is estimated that nearly 90 percent of all silent films are lost today.  Of that small percentage of titles which does survive at archives, studios and in private collections, much has yet to be preserved, while far too many of those that have been preserved exist only in fragmentary form.  (For example, only portions remain of the performances of Clara Bow, Gary Cooper and Louise Brooks, respectively, in the preservation elements housed at UCLA Film & Television Archive of…

This pioneering aviation picture put William A. Wellman's career in high gear after directing silents for various studios.  It drew heavily on his own World War I experience as an American flyer for the Lafayette Escadrille.  The technically demanding shoot was based in San Antonio, Texas, where Wellman and hundreds of army personnel and extras waited for good weather (sun with clouds, to give the correct sense of space).  Though the film won the first Best Picture Academy Award, Wellman…

Presented by the American Cinematheque and Retro Format Films on 8mm Mary Pickford enchants in a fascinating evening of short films by pioneers D.W. Griffith and Thomas H. Ince, including her first starring role in “The Violin Maker of Cremona” (1909), “Sweet and Twenty” (1909), “Artful Kate” (1911), “Lena and the Geese” (1912), “A Beast at Bay” (1912), “Friends” (1912) and more, with Lionel Barrymore, Henry Walthall, Owen Moore, Billy Quirk and many more. With live musical accompaniment by Cliff…

An Evening of D.W. Griffith Shorts Presented by the American Cinematheque and Retro Format Films on 8mm Our outstanding series resumes with films from early 1911. Mary Pickford stars in “The Three Sisters” and "When a Man Loves.” We screen two daring social dramas: “Fate’s Turning,” in which wealthy Charles West rejects waitress Dorothy Bernard (who bears his child out of wedlock), and “The Lily of the Tenements,” which features Bernard as a Lower East Side seamstress sexually exploited by…