Maine Silent Film Festival – Bangor Daily News

In July 2024, the Maine Silent Film Festival returns to Bucksport’s historic Alamo Theater with another two-day program, blending comedy and drama, short films and feature films, focusing on rare and unusual titles rarely shown theatrically today . All films shown are accompanied live by Doug Protsik.

Wednesday July 24, 2024, from 7:00 p.m.
Made in Maine

There are many silent films set in Maine, but relatively few of them were filmed here. This evening begins with two short comedies filmed on location in Maine and ends with a feature-length drama not only filmed here but written by a Maine author and produced by a Maine-based studio.

Shorts:-

Just the people of Maine (Lubin, 1912)
The Squire hopes to marry his widowed neighbor. After a night of scary stories, he thinks he has found a way to scare his rival and win the widow’s heart.

With Ethel Clayton and Harry Myers · Directed by Barry O’Neil · 15 min.

The Man-Hating Club (Vitagraph, 1910)
When a letter from another woman falls out of her boyfriend’s pocket, Florence and her friends form the Men Haters Club.

With Florence Turner, Edith Storey and Rose Tapley · Directed by Laurence Trimble · 11 min.

Functionality:-

Timothy’s Quest (Dirigo, 1922)
Timothy and Gay, orphans from the Boston slums, flee to Maine in search of a home and manage to thaw Avilda’s embittered, grief-stricken heart.

With Joseph Depew and Helen Rowland · Directed by Sidney Olcott · 86 min.

Thursday July 25, from 7:00 p.m.
In war

Whether comedy or drama, historical or contemporary, war is an eternal subject of silent cinema. This evening is a chronological collection of short dramas and concludes with a feature-length comedy that follows wars through time, from the ancient past of the Battle of Ephraim Wood to the contemporary Great War.

Shorts:-

Absalom (Pathé, 1912)
Absalom rebels and raises an army to depose his father, King David.

With Georges Dorival and Paul Franck · Directed by Henri Andréani · 13 min.

The Victoria Cross (Vitagraph, 1912)
During the Crimean War, a British lieutenant is put in danger during the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade.

With Wallace Reid and Edith Storey · Directed by Hal Reid · 14 min.

On the Other Side of the Mexican Line (Solax, 1911)
An American soldier facing execution during the Mexican Revolution is rescued by the woman sent to spy on him.

With Frances Gibson and Romaine Fielding · Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché · 12 min.

Functionality:-

Yankee Doodle in Berlin (Mack Sennett, 1919)
Captain Bob White disguises himself as a woman, works his way into the German high command, and seduces the Kaiser himself into revealing Germany’s war plans.

With Bothwell Browne and Ford Sterling · Directed by Richard Jones · 68 min.

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