In the News … Maine Silent Movie Festival Something to Talk About
Both the Kennebec Journal and Sun Journal featured the Colonial Theater’s upcoming Silent Movie Festival. See the June 11, 2023 Kennebec Journal link below to read the article in its entirety, see photos, and even a short movie clip.
https://www.centralmaine.com/2023/06/11/maine-silent-movie-festival-something-to-talk-about/
Maine silent movie festival something to talk about
Century-old moving pictures filmed in Maine to be shown at Augusta’s historic theater next weekend, among them several involving Auburn’s Holman Day.
BY STEVE COLLINS SUN JOURNAL
An advertising card for the June 16 and 17 Silent Film Festival displayed in front of the Colonial Theater on Water Street in Augusta where the movies will be shown. Steve Collins/Sun Journal
AUGUSTA — In the early days of movies, when the spotlight had not yet firmly focused on Hollywood, film crews sometimes settled in unlikely places to make moving pictures.
They made cowboy flicks in Philadelphia, dramas in Ithaca, New York, and “north woods” stories in Maine.
Eleven black-and-white movies shot in the Pine Tree State between 1910 and 1925 will be featured at the Silent Film Festival next weekend at the historic Colonial Theater in Augusta.
Six of them were made nearby, featuring scenes in Augusta, the Belgrade Lakes, the Kennebec River and nearby forests. One even cast former Gov. Percival Baxter in a bit part after he grew curious watching some moviemaking taking place next door to the Blaine House.
“I tried to do as many Maine-oriented films as possible,” said festival organizer Edward Lorusso of Belgrade, a film historian, writer, producer and composer who gathered the movies for the festival.
The Augusta area films “are coming back to the theater where they probably made their debut,” Lorusso said.
To continue reading the article in its entirety, see photos, and even a short movie clip, see the June 11, 2023 Kennebec Journal’s link below:
https://www.centralmaine.com/2023/06/11/maine-silent-movie-festival-something-to-talk-about/
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