Screening of four silent films from the late 1920s curated by film historian Andrew Gilmore at Chestnut Hill Library.
Chestnut Hill Library is running a series of silent film screenings this October, curated by local film historian and teacher Andrew Gilmore. The whole thing focuses on the late 1920s, a window Gilmore describes as the period when silent cinema was at its creative peak, just before the talkies took over. It's a slow-burn series spread across three Saturdays, so you can catch one or come back for all of them.
Across the sessions, Gilmore is presenting four films from that era. Sunrise (1927) is a drama that swept the first Academy Awards, taking home both Best Actress and Unique and Artistic Picture. The Crowd (1928) follows a man and a woman through a large, impersonal metropolis, tracing their hopes, struggles, and downfalls. There's also The Kid Brother (1927), starring Harold Lloyd, and a fourth title that rounds out the group. If you're not familiar with the era, it's a good place to start: Sunrise is one of the most acclaimed films of the twenties, and The Crowd is a classic look at city life that still feels recognizable.
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The screenings are aimed at adults, young adults, and seniors alike, so it's a mix of crowds rather than a niche cinephile thing. The library is at 8711 Germantown Avenue, at the corner of Germantown Ave. and Bethlehem Pike in Philadelphia. The sessions run from 1 PM to 3 PM on Saturday, October 3, Saturday, October 17, and Saturday, October 24.
