27th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival Report
The Black Pirate The unofficial theme for the 2024 edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival might be There Be Pirates Afoot. With two of my favorite silent pirate films, starting with opening night with the BFI/Museum of Modern Art's brand spanking new restoration of Douglas Fairbanks The Black Pirate and later a UCLA restoration of The Sea Hawk starring Milton Sills. Other pirate-like hijinks showed up during the festival, just not literal pirates. A trailer for the 2024 festival can be seen here . Opening Night: April 10, 2024 Douglas Fairbanks and Billie Dove The Black Pirate The Festival started with a BANG screening the newly restored 1926 2 color technicolor feature The Black Pirate starring Douglas Fairbanks and Billie Dove. To say this was eye-popping is an understatement. The two-color process by Technicolor was like nothing I had ever seen before. This process filters via red and green through a prism, so you do not get the full spectrum that you would lat
