British Silent Film Festival and Symposium News

The four day British Silent Film Festival is back, but first we’ve another symposium and film screening – exciting times!

The Woman He Scorned  (1929): a not-so welcome embrace

That’s right: the British Silent Film Festival is set to make a triumphant return later this year. It will regain its former glory as a full-scale four day event, after having had a slightly lower profile for the past couple of years. As a curtain-raiser we’ve got the third annual silent film symposium to look forward to, with registration here. The call out for papers has been announced; here’s the lowdown:

The British Silent Film Festival, Kings College and the British Film Institute present

British Silent Film Festival Symposium 2015

Friday 24^th April

King’s College London

Call for Presentations

Drawing on the success of our previous events, we again seek to draw together scholars and enthusiasts of early British cinema. This one-day symposium is intended as a forum for the presentation of new research, scholarship and archival work into film culture in Britain and its Empire before 1930. As such we would like to invite presentations from people working in all aspects of this field, including cinema in the wider context of theatrical, literary and popular cultures; cinema and World War I; cinema and technology, exhibition, reception and critique. In the light of a recent AHRC award investigating the transition between silent and sound cinema in the UK (1927-1933), we would be particularly interested to include papers on this topic. An early evening screening of Paul Czinner’s The Woman He Scorned (1929), starring Pola Negri, will be included in the day’s events. Please submit papers by 20^th March:

Hans Rehmann and Pola Negri in wedded blitz

“Eh? According to this, he only married you for a bet!”

Brent Reid

I started Brenton Film because I love film – quelle surprise! The silent era, 1930s and 1940s especially get my literary juices flowing, so you’ll see a lot about those. For more, see the About page.