Los Angeles based film historian Sparrow Morgan is proud to announce The Laugh and Live Festival, the first and only event showcasing contemporary silent films.
Founded in honor of Douglas Fairbanks Sr, for whose charming book of advice the festival is named, The Laugh and Live Festival offers an opportunity for student and non-professional film makers to work with the silent format. Participants are encouraged not only to experiment with technique and style, but to embrace the cowboys-with-cameras attitude that was ubiquitous in early Hollywood. In days when rival production companies would routinely sabotage one another, there was no time for perfection; a cinematographer took a shot and ran. Sometimes literally.
The Festival aims to increase the participants’ understanding and appreciation of silent film not only as an historical art form, but challenges them to consider silent film as a viable modern format.
“Interest in silent film has been increasing in recent years, but most of the viewing public still consider it an acquired taste, something one needs a film degree to understand, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Morgan. “Silent films, especially the early one-reel nickelodeon serials, were made with the express purpose of entertaining a wide audience. It was all about the action, the drama, and the excitement, not unlike modern day soap operas. The art came later.”
Coming from a successful career on Broadway, Douglas Fairbanks was initially skeptical of film. However, he soon came to believe that movies could be more than just cheap entertainment, and went on to become a founding member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as United Artists. Once he had full creative freedom over his films, he went to great expense to produce epic full length pictures that are both lasting works of art and great fun to watch. The effort paid off – when Robin Hood opened at the Egyptian Theater in 1922, the film was so popular, and played for so long, that trolly conductors took to calling, “All off for Robin Hood!”
It is in this spirit that student and non-professional filmmakers are invited to submit their short silent films for inclusion in The Laugh and Live Festival, 2012.