Free Silent Film Day at Castro Theatre | SF

Our Amazing Tales program started life in 2006 to highlight the importance of film preservation and to provide insight into the remarkable work done by film archives around the world. Since then it has become one of the most highly anticipated programs in the festival. And it’s free.

This year’s presenters: Restorer Robert Byrne and researcher Thierry Lecointe will share cinematic wonders they’ve discovered in fin de siècle novelty flipbooks. Stefan Drössler, head of Filmmuseum München, discusses the restoration of Robert Reinert’s Opium and Germany’s flourishing national cinema at the end of WWI.

Hisashi Okajima, director of the National Film Archive of Japan, demonstrates the Mina Talkie Sound System used for Kenji Mizoguchi’s Furusato. Bruce Goldstein, director of repertory programming at New York’s Film Forum and founder of Rialto Pictures, illustrates how “Silents Got No Respect” the minute talkies came in.