Musical Director Cliff Retallick in performance at the Woman's Club of Hollywood
Our Mission is to promote education and enthusiasm about the art of silent film. Our Vision is a future where the silent film era is widely enjoyed and fully appreciated as a cornerstone of modern film and visual art.
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It is estimated that 85 - 90% of all films made from 1896 to 1929 are lost forever. It is imperative that the surviving films from the silent era are experienced and enjoyed, or there will be no will to preserve what remains. Losing this part of our history would mean forgetting how the most important art form of our time evolved, as well as how people a century ago viewed the social issues shaping our lives today. We would also miss out on the chance to experience some amazing art.
Fortunately, the solution to this problem is simple, because so much of the art produced during the silent film era is powerful and universal. When we first began showing silent films to 6th, 7th and 8th graders at Laurel Magnet School in Los Angeles, we heard the same objection from a lot of well-meaning friends, “You can show them fast-paced comedies, but kids today don’t have the attention span for silent drama.” As it turned out, nothing could be further from the truth. After successful screenings of films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, we took a gamble and introduced the students to “The Flying Ace,” an aviation drama featuring an all African-American cast. produced by the pioneering Norman Studios in 1926. The children were fascinated, and the discussion afterward was one of the most stimulating we ever had. The 1915 William S. Hart western short “Bad Buck of Santa Ynez” was received with similar enthusiasm. Retroformat is run by a team of volunteers who are excited by our mission, including our Musical Director, Cliff Retallick, a master composer, improvisor and keyboardist, and digital imaging specialist David Slaughter, who prepares our online presentations of rare silent film prints from private collections. Our Board of Directors includes internationally renowned filmmakers Allison Anders and Alexander Payne, and our Advisors include the legendary cultural historian Anthony Slide, author of Nitrate Won’t Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States and more than 70 other books on film history and popular culture. |
Our programs often include special guests (like actor Paul Dooley, shown above in a special tribute to his idol, Buster Keaton) and focus on social issues, diversity and trailblazing female filmmakers. Please help us continue by making a tax deductible contribution now!
Most of us take the language of film for granted, not realizing that the earliest filmmakers had to carve that language from nothing. In just three decades, the silent film era produced a gigantic cultural breakthrough comparable to centuries of development in traditional art: the creation and growth of filmic narrative as a new, unique visual language. It would be an incalculable loss if everything from the cave paintings of Lascaux, France through the works of the Italian Renaissance, when painters created the first masterworks using linear perspective, were to disappear, and yet that is threatened with our legacy from the silent film era.
Only a small number of people alive today have ever had the unique experience of attending a public silent movie screening with live musical accompaniment. Retroformat’s mission is to create enthusiasm about the art of silent film, which flowered for thirty years and provided the foundation for today’s filmmaking. Retroformat conducts in-person theatrical screenings with live music, educational programming for public and private schools and online outreach.
Retroformat Silent Films is an educational 501c3 nonprofit, located in Los Angeles, California. We were founded as a corporation on April 11, 2018 and achieved nonprofit status on April 11, 2019. In addition to theatrical screenings at venues like Grauman’s Egyptian Theater and The Hollywood Legion Theater, we maintain a new online archive for members, the Vault. We also screen silent films with live music and discussion for 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the Laurel Cinematic Arts and Creative Technologies Magnet School in L.A.
Only a small number of people alive today have ever had the unique experience of attending a public silent movie screening with live musical accompaniment. Retroformat’s mission is to create enthusiasm about the art of silent film, which flowered for thirty years and provided the foundation for today’s filmmaking. Retroformat conducts in-person theatrical screenings with live music, educational programming for public and private schools and online outreach.
Retroformat Silent Films is an educational 501c3 nonprofit, located in Los Angeles, California. We were founded as a corporation on April 11, 2018 and achieved nonprofit status on April 11, 2019. In addition to theatrical screenings at venues like Grauman’s Egyptian Theater and The Hollywood Legion Theater, we maintain a new online archive for members, the Vault. We also screen silent films with live music and discussion for 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the Laurel Cinematic Arts and Creative Technologies Magnet School in L.A.