Next Screening Sunday 6th September

Suffolk Silents Society is back for the Autumn with a selection of short films directed by women. This will take place at Ipswich Film Theatre on Sunday 6th September 2015 at 3.30pm.

Entry is £2 pay on the door. You’ll find us in the Screen 2 corridor.

We’ll be showcasing the talents of early film pioneers such as Lotte Reiginer most famous for the earliest surviving feature length animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed and Alice Guy-Blache, probably the first female film director.

This screening is part of Scalarama and the Directed by Women Worldwide Viewing Party.

Drawing a Line

Here we are in June 2015 drawing a line under a discouraging year that has been filled with disappointments and delays.

Suffolk Silents Society is undaunted and will be returning in the Autumn with some exciting events. So …..

Royal Hospital School Sat 24th January

This is not a Suffolk Silents event – we are delighted to support all Silent Cinema.

Silent Film Screening @ Royal Hospital School Holbrook Saturday 24th January 7pm

In the early 1900s, large theatre houses often hired orchestras to play along with silent films. The practice became so expensive that instead, venues would hire organists or pianists to become a one-man orchestra.

Laughter and amazement guaranteed as pianist, composer and conductor, David Pickthall, will spend an evening superbly accompanying a number of silent short films on the sparkling new Fazioli Grand Piano.

Tickets: £10.00, Concessions £7.00, Children Free

Buy Tickets Online at Ipswich Regent

Kickstarting Our Pledge To Succeed

It is all getting very exciting. We’re within days of being able to announce our first film screening.

Our first step has now gone live with our tiny little Kickstarter campaign. We’re trying to generate at least £100 over the next two weeks to fund printing and publicity materials.

If you want to know more and especially if you want to support us please visit Kickstarter to make your pledge.

New Film Club

Cinema is now nearly 120 years old so for the first quarter of its life it was predominantly silent.

During over 30 years, from the Lumiere Brothers first public screenings in 1895 to The Jazz Singer in 1927, films developed from short, simple, ‘moving pictures’ to an artistic and narrative form that has helped to form the world we now live in.

Seeing these first generations of film on the big screen is a wonderful experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed those special occasions where you get to see silent film in a cinema setting with a Live Music accompaniment for example those offered by The Dodge Brothers, Neil Brand, and Wendy Hiscocks.

Suffolk Silents Society is hoping that if we generate enough interest it will be possible to make the screening of silent films a frequent event and a part of our regular cinema experience in Ipswich.

On 35mm, DCP (digital projection), Blu-Ray, or DVD there is plenty of material available to keep us going for some time to come and, fingers crossed, more footage will be put out there for us to enjoy.

Silent cinema ranges from Laurel & Hardy shorts, to the great silent epics of Griffith and Stroheim, to documentary clips, to the animated fairy tales of Lotte Reiniger, to the magician’s stunts of the first special effects. All life is here.