SILENT CINEMA PRESENTATIONS INC
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Mission Statement
Silent Cinema Presentations is a not for profit organization dedicated to presenting silent movies with live musical accompaniment to audiences of all ages in order to preserve the experience of silent cinema. We have produced silent films shows at a variety of venues and have restored silent films for use at our shows.
About This Cause
The Silent Clown Film Series was born of the desire of Ben Model, composer/pianist, to compose and play for silent films. He to bring silent movies from the early part of the 20th Century to new audiences, and to present restored films accompanied by live music, as they were experienced originally. In the beginning, Bruce Lawton supplied the films and projectors, as Ben composed and played the music. Often Ben would need to bring his own electronic keyboard. After the show they would have a brief question and answer session, which our audiences still enjoy. In those early days, Ben and Bruce were joined by Steve Massa, author and film historian, who writes the program notes for each film; Marlene Weissman, a graphic artist, recently included in the Club 57 Exhibit at MoMA, who designs the programs and brochures, and Lydia Edwards who manages our relationship with our supporters. Susan Selig took on the role of Treasurer in 2014. Our mission is to present silent comedies as they were originally presented, with live musical accompaniment, on twelve Saturdays a year. In the past we did ten shows a year due to budgetary considerations. We include the giants of comedy and cinema, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and the lesser known innovators such as Alice Howell, Raymond Griffith and Harry Langdon. The Silent Clowns Film Series has shown our movies in partnership with several venues on the Upper West Side, we have presented our shows at the NY Historical Society, the West Side YMCA, and the Makor/Steinhardt Center. Since 2010 we have been fortunate to have a home at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, which is ADA compliant, with film and digital projectors -- though we try to show actual film -- as well as a Steinway grand piano. We have a loyal following of attendees and supporters, many of them have become "Friends of the Silent Clowns", subscribing to help keep the series alive. We were incorporated as a 501(c) (3) charity in 2002. NYSCA gave us our first grant in 2004, it was renewed through 2017, and we have received it again for 2019. In addition, we receive grants from the Ira Resnick Foundation, the Edward Handelman Fund and the Artrepreneur Foundation. Our shows are free, and new people join our audience each show. The Bruno Walter Auditorium is filled to capacity for each show with a lively audience engaged and laughing at images created one hundred years ago. Our audience is varied, we see all sorts of people, from preschoolers to seniors who can all appreciate slapstick captured and preserved for the future in the teens and the twenties of the twentieth century. The Silent Clowns Film Series is a very small institution, we have survived the bumps and difficulties of running a small nonprofit and we continue to bring silent films to a diverse group of people, of all ages, ethnicity and gender, as Ben originally intended, and we hope to continue to do into the future.