Welcome to The Silent Clowns Film Series, NYC's longest-running regularly-scheduled showcase for classic silent film comedy (since 1997)! We present monthly, year-round showings of the silent movies of Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Lloyd, and many others, all with live musical accompaniment by renowned silent film accompanist Ben Model. Every program features a spoken introduction and Q&A by film historians Bruce Lawton and Steve Massa. Come early and read our excellent film notes and enjoy silent-era coming attraction slides. Our programs, presented on a regular basis on weekend afternoons, are geared to classic film fans as well as to families.
Our Fall 2015 season – "Before Batman: Douglas Fairbanks' Zorro (and son)" – showcases the original swashbuckler of silent cinema Douglas Fairbanks in his most iconic role. Click on 'now showing' above and mark your calendars…and make sure you arrive early for good seats! The image at right is the cover of our new printed brochure, designed as always by Marlene Weisman-Abadi.
The Silent Clowns Film Series presents its shows in the beautiful Bruno Walter Auditorium, located in the NY Library for the Performing Arts, at the back of Lincoln Center. Click on the "theatre/tkts" button above for info about the theater and 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 since 2010 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.
