Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium

09/01/2026

Here's a few images from our Silent Shorts screenings this past Sunday! Thank you to everyone who joined us, and, if we didn't see you this time, we hope you'll join us for our annual festival from September 15-20th!
https://www.clevelandart.org/cleveland-silent-film-festival-2026

08/31/2026

We're delighted to be partnering with the Western Reserve Theatre Organ Society (WRTOS) and Cleveland Grays Armory Museum for our screening of Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL (1926) on Thursday, September 17 at 7:30! You can get tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1995858217656?aff=oddtdtcreator

A critical failure on its original release, The General is now regarded as one of Buster Keaton’s greatest films. The story is based on actual events during the Civil War, in which Union soldiers commandeered a train called “The General.” In a now controversial decision, Keaton’s version has...

08/30/2026

"Four Can't Miss Silent Film Festivals in September" — Thank you Marya!

Silent Sundays: Silent Film Festivals

08/29/2026

TOMORROW AT 3 PM...

Join us for FREE for an hour of four silent shorts, accompanied by David Blazer on piano.

Screenings will take place at Heights Theater. You don't want to miss it!

08/28/2026

What can you expect from a Cleveland Silent Film Festival screening? Here's a little taste!

Clip: Chaplin's SUNNYSIDE (1919) with piano accompaniment by Mike Petrone!

08/28/2026

We’ll be showing Guy Blaché’s Race for the Sausage this Sunday as part of our Silent Shorts! program at the Heights Theater at 3:00 pm! Free! Part of the Heights Music Hop!

Discover the filmmaker who helped invent cinema — then was almost written out of its history.

BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ comes to the Star & Shadow this October.

Narrated by Jodie Foster, Pamela B. Green’s acclaimed documentary uncovers the extraordinary life and work of Alice Guy-Blaché, one of cinema’s first and most prolific filmmakers. Beginning her career in the 1890s, Guy-Blaché pioneered narrative filmmaking, experimented with sound, colour and special effects, and directed, wrote or produced hundreds of films across two continents.

Yet for decades, her groundbreaking contribution to cinema was largely forgotten.

Combining rare archival material with an investigation into her remarkable career, BE NATURAL restores Guy-Blaché to her rightful place in film history — not simply as a pioneering woman filmmaker, but as one of the pioneers of cinema itself.

SUNDAY 11 OCTOBER • 7.30PM

Pay What You Can – tickets via the link here
https://www.ticketsource.com/star-and-shadow-cinema/be-natural-the-untold-story-of-alice-guy-blache/2026-10-11/19:30/t-qmzvmmd

08/28/2026

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08/28/2026

Did you know? THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD cast contains a remarkable collection of future Hollywood stars in tiny, uncredited parts.

Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper all appear. Cooper actually plays two small parts—a flood victim and a survivor!

See them for yourself at the Cleveland Silent Film Festival screening of THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD on Friday, September 18th at 7:30pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art!