Dir: Various including Buster Keaton
Total running Time: 110 mins approx
Recommended Certificate: U
Countless films were destroyed or lost forever during the early years of cinema. In the 1930s film archives began to spring up with the aim of preserving the prints which survived for the future, headed up by the pioneering efforts of Iris Barry at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Barry first fell in love with cinema as a child in turn-of-the-century Birmingham, and this special event is a tribute to her and a chance to revisit some of the films which she helped to pass on.
Our feature attraction is the brilliant comedy Sherlock Junior, with Buster Keaton at the height of his powers in 1924 as a day-dreaming projectionist. As well as being one of the funniest films ever made, it’s also famous for the sequence in which Buster fell from a water-tower. (He didn't notice his neck was broken until many years later.) The programme will also feature European work including the beautiful Dutch short Rain (dir: Joris Ivens, 1929), and improvised accompaniment will be provided by musician and broadcaster Nigel Ogden (The Organist Entertains) and acclaimed jazz pianist Alcyona Mick.
© Flatpack Festival 2010