Films from 1923 will be on the big screen for 26th annual Kansas Silent Film Festival
The Kansas Silent Film Festival will feature a variety of classic silent films from 1923 this year. It's the 26th year of celebrating the early days of the big screen.
In addition, three short films will be shown from 1915, 1916 and 1920.
The festival will begin at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 24 and run through 10:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at White Concert Hall, 1700 S.W. Jewell, on Washburn University's campus. All films will be free and open to the public.
There will be a charge for Saturday's cinema dinner.
Featuring films from one year is a first for the festival.
"This is really the first time we've tried that," said Bill Shaffer, director of Kansas Silent Film Festival. "For the last several years, we've done women filmmakers. We've done lost films. Then of course we've also had our benchmark years — where we've reached 25 years — so we celebrated the 25th anniversary by showing several films we've shown before but also showing several films we didn't show at all."
This will be the second year the festival begins in the afternoon, to expand programming.
Annual film festival will include accompanied music and introductions
Those who attend will see films starring such late actors and actresses as Alan Hale Sr., Noah Young, Elmo Billings, Baby Peggy and more.
All films will be accompanied by live music from Bill Benningfield, Ben Model, Jeff Rapsis, Rodney Sauer, Marvin Faulwell and Bob Keckeisen.
"Those guys can sit down and look at a film, before the things finished, they'll have six or seven different pieces already worked into the film knowing exactly where they need to go," Shaffer said. "I'm always impressed with how they handle that. It's really a superhuman job to have that kind of talent."
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All films will be shown on 16mm film, except for the newly restored films, which will be on Blu-Ray or DVD.
Kansas City film historian Denise Morrison returns as host to provide brief introductions for each film. This year's special guest will include Lara Gabrielle, film writer and researcher. She will provide an introduction to the film "Litte Old New-York."
Gabrielle will be available on the second day for a book signing of her latest published biography of silent screen star Marion Davies titled "Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies."
Films will include "The Covered Wagon," "Safety Last," "Bellboy 13" and more. The full schedule, including which musicians will accompany which films, can be found on the festival website.
Cinema dinner will bring topic of Marion Davies
The film festival's cinema dinner event will be from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center, 1701 SW Jewell Ave., Lara Gabrielle will be a keynote speaker on the topic of 'The life of Marion Davies'
Gabrielle's biography about Davies was named one of Alta Journal's top books to read this past fall. It was included in Leonard Maltin's list of five new and notable books.
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Dinner will cost $40 and is reservation only. Advanced tickets can be purchased until Feb. 20 by sending requests to KSFF Cinema-Dinner P.O. Box 2032 Topeka, Kansas 66604-2032. The nonrefundable tickets should be made payable to Kansas Silent Film Festival.
Menu dishes include chicken picatta, roasted red potatoes, sauteed vegetable medley and more. A vegetarian entree will also be available, offering wild rice sage stuffed acorn squash. Request for a vegetarian entree must be sent to bill.shaffer@washburn.edu.
Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: 26th annual Kansas Silent Film Festival will feature films of 1923
