Retroformat Silent Films

Only a small number of people alive today have ever experienced the original form of movie presentation - a silent film screened in its full glory with live music. We believe the time is right for a renaissance in appreciation for silent films, many of which are available now in beautiful digital restorations. Our first purpose is to show silent films in public theaters with live music.

For knowledgeable silent film fans, lesser known silent films are even harder to access, especially in quality presentations. Our Patreon page, The Vault, launching in February 2020, makes available online high quality digital versions of an ever-growing, eclectic assortment of rare and unusual silent films scanned from prints in private libraries and other sources.

In today's scholastic environment, where arts programs are notoriously underfunded and underemphasized, education regarding silent film is almost nonexistent. Our broader educational goal is recognition for the silent film era as the time of a major artistic and cultural movement.

Retroformat brings some of the best silent films back into Los Angeles movie theaters, where they can be fully experienced the way they were originally intended, often for the first time in generations. The novelty of live, improvised music separates these events from ordinary classic film showings, adding a “folk art” element that gives each screening the appeal of a unique, one-time-only event. We patiently look forward to the end of the Covid pandemic, when we will return to public screenings in a variety of venues in the Los Angeles area.

In 2020, we are launching an online library of silent films, The Vault, on Patreon. Our sources include 16mm prints from the University of Southern California Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive, and special films restored by the Library of Congress and other archives. We are posting a wide variety of both rare and well known silent films for our online subscribers, with excellent musical accompaniment by our Musical Director, Cliff Retallick. We also post exclusive Q&As with silent film experts and enthusiasts.

Our free public school presentations are intended for students of all ages. Since 2019, we have been screening silent films and presenting special guest speakers to 6th, 7th and 8th grade film students at Laurel Cinematic Arts and Technologies Magnet School in Los Angeles. During the pandemic era, we have conducted these events via Zoom. As we continue to grow, we plan offer our presentations at affordable costs to private schools.

With the help of collaborating film distributors, theaters and other nonprofits, our flagship screening events feature state-of-the-art digital and classic 35mm film presentations in major theaters.

Our online library is composed mainly of digitally scanned 16mm film, Super 8 and 8mm prints from private collections and from the USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive. All scans are made on our Retroscan Universal Mark II Scanner.

Retroformat's Educational Initiative addresses today's students' notoriously short attention spans, one of the major problems facing educators. By presenting unique silent movies filled with action, with the added excitement of live keyboard music improvised in real time, the students are trained to focus their attention. Emphasis is placed on the importance of closely watching the action in silent films, as opposed to the passive way we are accustomed to watching our multimedia screens today. At first, we took 16mm and 8mm projectors directly into the classroom. Cliff Retallick accompanied the films live on an electronic keyboard. Most of the students had never seen a movie projector or celluloid film before, much less a silent movie with live music. As referenced above, due to the pandemic, beginning in March 2020, these presentations have been continued via Zoom.

We are proud of our record of pubic screenings of silent films in formats from standard 8mm to 35mm to digital. We look forward to presenting films with live music in theaters on a regular basis again in the very near future.

Retroformat began by screening home movie technology - 8mm and 16mm films - in the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater.

In January 2020, we presented our first 35mm event, a rare screening of Charlie Chaplin's original 1925 version of "The Gold Rush" at the Hollywood Legion Theater. This event included with a live, improvised piano score, with special permission from the Chaplin Estate.

Although the pandemic has interfered with our live screenings, in November 2020 we presented the first drive-in presentation of a silent film with live music in Hollywood history, at the Hollywood Legion Theater's new drive-in. Our screening of Harold Lloyd’s “The Freshman” (1923) featured live keyboard accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.

In April 2020, Retroformat joined the digital age when “Retroformat Live!” premiered on Youtube and Facebook, with a webcast of Harold Lloyd’s “Never Weaken“ and a Q&A with Suzanne Lloyd of the Harold Lloyd Estate.

In January 2020, we entered into a partnership with Laurel Cinematic Arts and Creative Technologies Magnet School, to provide monthly silent film screenings for dozens of 6th, 7th and 8th grade film students and special education students. These screenings continue in 2022.

In February 2022, we announced the launch of The Vault, an online library of silent films for subscribers.