The 2023 festival opened in the grand historic Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland’s Midtown with a 100th anniversary celebration of Harold Lloyd’s nailbiter comedy Safety Last! on Wednesday, September 6th. Renowned silent film musician Clark Wilson, artist-in-residence at Columbus’s Ohio Theater, gave the audience a treat beforehand by explaining his scoring methods and talking about the Masonic’s Mighty Wurlitzer Opus 793, the featured instrument of the evening.

The festival continued at Cleveland’s Cinematheque on Thursday, September 7th, with Douglas Fairbanks in the rollicking Mark of Zorro (1920), accompanied by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

The Mont Altos again provided original scores for the double bill at the Cleveland Museum of Art: “Birth of the Modern Industrial City” on Friday, September 8th. The program included two contrasting visions of modern industrial urbanism: The Heart of Cleveland (1924), a valentine to the old Lakeshore Power Plant and the modern conveniences it powered, and Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman’s mesmerizing tour of Soviet urban life.

For the festival’s closing night event on Saturday, September 9th, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra provided the music for a moving production of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) that included live sound effects performed by Cleveland’s own Radio on the Lake Theatre.

View the 2023 festival program

2023 Festival Program

The festival kicks off with one of Harold Lloyd’s best-loved comedies—the iconic Safety Last! This screening features theater organist Clark Wilson, one of the most prominent and recognized scorers of silent photoplays in America today. Wilson’s musical accompaniments reflect the techniques and materials of the musical performances given in major picture palaces during the heyday of silent film. Tickets available here!
Source: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05005F0F816C1280
Colorado’s Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra is America’s foremost ensemble dedicated to providing musical accompaniment for silent movies. The five-member band returns to Cleveland to play for three programs in the 2023 Cleveland Silent Film Festival. The first of these is The Mark of Zorro, a Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. comedy/adventure/romance in which the celebrated actor and acrobat plays the mysterious masked man (and populist hero) who undermines Spanish authorities in old California. Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide calls it “Doug’s best film—his first swashbuckler. Nonstop fun.” Digital. 108 min. For tickets visit Cinematheque’s website.
Special admission $18; members, CIA/CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $15. No Cinematheque passes.
Source: https://www.cia.edu/cinematheque/film-schedule/2023/09/the-mark-of-zorro
Join us at the Cleveland Museum of Art for two films about the birth of the modern industrial city. The Hart of Cleveland (1924) tells the tale of two rural Northeast Ohio children visiting Cleveland and marveling at the possibilities of electrification. Man with A Movie Camera (1929) follows, a kaleidoscopic tour of Soviet urban life. The film regularly ranks in the top films of all time and is one of the most radical and influential—and fun—avant-garde features ever made Both films will feature original scores performed by the incomparable Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Tickets can be purchased at the museum box office and website. (Cinematheque and/or Festival members should use the discount code SILENTS.) Thanks to Gabe Pollack, CMA.
Source: http://www.clevelandart.org/events/music-and-performances/cleveland-silent-film-festival-birth-modern-industrial-city
Tonight, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (see 9/7) accompanies the lesser known silent version of Lewis Milestone’s masterpiece. Mont Alto’s music will be supplemented by sound effects created live by Cleveland’s own Radio on the Lake Theatre. This screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s searing anti-war novel—in which German schoolboys’ heroic notions of war are dispelled by battlefield realities—is not to be missed. 35mm. 133 min. For tickets, visit Cinematheque’s website.
Special admission $20; members, CIA/CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $17. No Cinematheque passes. Film preserved by the Library of Congress.
Source: https://www.cia.edu/cinematheque/film-schedule/2023/09/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-silent-version