The Silent Clowns Film Series, NYC's longest-running regularly-scheduled showcase for classic silent film comedy (since in 1997), screens the movies of Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Lloyd, and many others. Every show features live musical accompaniment by Ben Model, with introduction and Q&A by film historians Bruce Lawton and Steve Massa. Our programs, presented on a regular basis on weekend afternoons, are geared to the classic film fan as well as to families.
Our spring 2011 series highlighted the short films of Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton, and this past summer saw a tribute to the great costume pictures of the 1920s, in films starring Douglas Fairbanks, Dorothy Gish, John Barrymore and Rudolph Valentino.
We are excited to announce our laugh-riot Fall/Winter 2011 season showcasing the great two-reel comedy shorts of the silent era. Our series, programmed as always by Bruce Lawton, is presented on film, and features live musical accompaniment by Ben Model. The image at right is the cover of our new printed brochure, designed (as always) by Marlene Weisman-Abadi.
Silent Clowns shows screen year-round on Saturday afternoons at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, located in the Library for the Performing Arts (at the back of Lincoln Center). Click on the theatre/tkts button for info about the theater and new ticketing procedures.
The Silent Clowns Film Series is dedicated to the memory of Walter Kerr, whose landmark book, "The Silent Clowns," was the inspiration for our series (and its name), as well as to the memory of William K. Everson, Lee Erwin, David Gill, Herb Graff, Eric James, Eleanor Keaton, Paul Killiam, Don Krim, Don & Karl Malkames, Warren Rothenberger and John Rogers...and dreams that survive.
Our shows have been presented in NYC's Upper West Side since we began in 1997, at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, the New-York Historical Society, The West Side YMCA's Little Theater, Makor, the Arclight Theatre...and now at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the Library for the Performing Arts.
This film series is a production of Silent Cinema Presentations, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Silent Cinema Presentations is supported by a generous grant from the Ira M. Resnick Foundation, and by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). We encourage those of you who attend our shows or who want to support us financially to make a donation and become a Friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series. Click on 'membership info' (above) for details.
