Chico Silent Film Festival to Benefit the Bidwell Mansion Community Project

The recent films Hugo and The Artist have led to revived interest in silent pictures, and I envy those who will meet them, here on the big screen with live music, for the first time. Silent films were not made to be seen on television, and there’s nothing like the real thing. I saw my first silent at 18, and since then exploring that unique medium has been one of my life’s great pleasures.

Silent pictures, I’ve learned, are not just movies without sound. In the first place, they always had musical accompaniment, as brilliantly given us by the phenomenal Dr. Frederick Hodges; but also silent film directors developed their own subtle and nuanced visual language, making it possible to convey    complex emotional information with things no bigger than the flutter of an eyelash. The resulting movies are absorbing in a way that talkies rarely are. The viewer is almost hypnotized by the images on the screen, but with a mind free to roam anywhere, everywhere. It can be a powerful experience.

Silent films came in at roughly the turn of the Twentieth Century and were, all but a few stragglers, gone by 1930. In just 30 years a spectacular art form was born, changed the world, and died. It’s been 50 years since I first came to that realization, but I still find it astonishing.

We dedicate this event to the support of Bidwell Mansion, and if you’re interested in volunteering to help with the festival’s second edition next year please let us know.