Silent Projector

An actual 8 millimeter project, real celluloid, no sound. This wasn’t at the Museum of the Moving Image or the Smithsonian Institute, but right there on Fifth Street at the weekly Sunday Night, J.C. Film Forum, which is presented at the Jersey City Arts School, As a special silent film evening, the film curator of the ongoing film presentation & discussion program, Yvonne Vairma, screened an actual celluloid Charlie Chaplin film, from 1914, Tillie’s Punctured Romance and in a is pretty cool blend of old and new technology, Yvonne found the film with score on You Tube. She cued up the lap top and as the film was projected through the above lens the musical accompaniment played off the internet. The projector was loud and the projected film looked beautiful. I’m not even a big Chaplain fan. I’ve always felt he was over-rated. Unfortunately, there was a gizmo of some kind, an adapter for the film reels, that was missing and we were unable to get through the two other reels. Not the fault of this projector, which was well up to the task. Dang thing is made of cast metal, real sturdy piece of equipment. Had to be more than half a century old. Wound up attaching a different projector to the lap top and we watched the rest of this silent comedy classic. Well, classic by default in my opinion but I still enjoyed it. What I enjoyed more was the discussion afterwards. Most of the folks there, who were in their 20s or early 30s, while extremeley perceptive, intelligent and true film lovers, had never seen a silent film before. I found that fascinating, not that they hadn’t seen one—I mean, who cares, there is just so much pop culture out there, who can keep up with everything—no, what was fascinating was hearing their first impressions of silent cinema. Silent film ripples throughout the history of cinema to this very day and what a rare treat to see other folks recognize that anew. I’ve been going just about every Sunday. Jersey City’s own Cineaste Society has been gaining momentum. Some of the topics and themes have included Memory & the Art of Cinema; Avant Garde films; Kurosawa, Bergman and next week, Indie Shorts!