San Francisco Film Preserve

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Another fantastic #SilentFilm talk from the @sffilmpreserve.bsky.social team today. We will post the link for the video when it gets uploaded later on. Don’t forget to follow them as well.

Online with SFFP — Silent Era Film Exchanges of the Tenderloin - San Francisco Film Preserve During the silent era, the Tenderloin neighborhood in the heart of San Francisco was a thriving hub of film culture, and was home to many film exchanges. These exchanges provided […]

Join by special guest host Jared Stearns, local author and Communications Manager at the Tenderloin Museum.

📅 Friday, November 21, 2025 • 12–1 PM PST
🎟️ FREE • Register here: filmpreserve.org/eve...
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“Silent Era Film Exchanges of the Tenderloin” dives into the bustling exchanges that supplied every Market Street theater — and yes, there are some scandalous tales hiding in the shadows of the district’s past.

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Join us tomorrow for the next edition of ONLINE WITH SFFP!

Discover how San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood became a hub of silent-era film magic.
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Soleil et ombre - Nederlands Silent Film Festival De hoofdfilm, Soleil et ombre, is een absoluut pareltje van de Franse superster Musidora.

🗓️ Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 10:45am–12:45pm (local time)

🎟️ TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW: nsff.nl/en/soleil-et...
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🎬 JANE’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1915), a spirited short about a young woman determined to choose her own path.

🎶 Live musical accompaniment by Daan van den Hurk (piano) & Tijn van der Sanden (guitar).
📍 Natlab – Podiumzaal, Kastanjelaan 500, Eindhoven, 5616 LZ Netherlands
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Her talk is followed by two restorations she worked on, both from the collection of the San Francisco Film Preserve:

🎬 SOLEIL ET OMBRE (1922), Musidora’s hauntingly beautiful tale of love, betrayal, and revenge, filmed in the sun-drenched landscapes of Andalusia.
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Celebrating silent world cinema on the big screen! At this year’s Nederlands Silent Film Festival, restorer Maria Fuentes takes audiences behind the scenes of her work—how she revives fragile films, the tools she relies on & the global collaborations that bring forgotten stories back to life.
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To show what restoration actually looks like in practice, we’re including clips and photos from one of our major 2025 projects: THE GARDEN OF EDEN (1928) 🍃✨

Your support makes restorations like THE GARDEN OF EDEN possible. Help us give more films the second life they deserve — every dollar truly makes a difference.

DONATE: filmpreserve.org/donate/

#SanFranciscoFilmPreserve #FilmRestoration #SilentFilm #TheGardenOfEden #PreserveCinema #HelpSaveCinema

🧽 DIGITAL RESTORATION — Frame-by-frame removal of dirt, dust, scratches, and damage
🎚️ GRADING — Working with expert graders to restore accurate luminance and color

Here’s what goes into every SFFP restoration:
🔍 RESEARCH — Identifying the best surviving materials and exploring the film’s history
📡 SCANNING — High-resolution scans of selected elements
📝 SHOTLISTING — Tracking every shot to ensure the strongest source is used at each moment

Every restoration presents its own challenges — some straightforward, others incredibly complex — but they all follow the same essential steps to return a film to the screen as close as possible to how it appeared when audiences first saw it nearly a century ago.

To show what restoration actually looks like in practice, we’re including clips and photos from one of our major 2025 projects: THE GARDEN OF EDEN (1928) 🍃✨

🎞️ What does restoration really mean?

As we share more about the four pillars of SFFP’s mission — restoration, preservation, access, and advocacy — we’re starting with one at the core of everything we do: RESTORATION.

Bajo el encanto del Brezo Blanco: El regreso de Maurice Tourneur con ‘The White Heather’ (1919) - photo-play The White Heather, obra del realizador Maurice Tourneur, fue recientemente redescubierta y presentada en Le Giornate del Cinema Muto de Pordenone en 2025, ma...

Thrilled to launch this new international silent and classic cinema publication, with my article on M. Tourneur’s lost film. I just had to begin it with him 🥹 Many thanks to @sffilmpreserve.bsky.social. Photos of the Verdi Theatre by Valerio Greco.
photo-play.net/2025/11/12/b...

Online with SFFP — Silent Era Film Exchanges of the Tenderloin - San Francisco Film Preserve During the silent era, the Tenderloin neighborhood in the heart of San Francisco was a thriving hub of film culture, and was home to many film exchanges. These exchanges provided […]

📅 Friday, November 21 | 12:00 PM PST
💻 REGISTER: filmpreserve.org/eve...

#SanFranciscoFilmPreserve #OnlineWithSFFP #VirtualEvent #SilentEra #FilmHistory #Tenderloin #SanFrancisco #TenderloinMuseum #FilmSky
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SFFP welcomes special guest host Jared Stearns, local author and Communications Manager at the Tenderloin Museum, to explore this fascinating corner of film history, weaving in the Tenderloin’s vibrant — and sometimes scandalous — past.
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In the early 1900s, the Tenderloin was home to bustling film exchanges that kept Market Street’s theaters stocked with the latest reels, making the neighborhood a vital part of San Francisco’s film industry.
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🎬 During the silent era, San Francisco’s Tenderloin was alive with movie magic...

Join San Francisco Film Preserve next Friday, November 21 at 12 PM (PST) for “Silent Era Film Exchanges of the Tenderloin,” part of our free monthly virtual series, ONLINE WITH SFFP.
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Garras de oro (The Dawn of Justice) WEST COAST PREMIERE Considered lost until the 1980s, Garras de oro (The Dawn of Justice) is regarded as World Cinema’s first explicitly anti-imperialist film. The film follows a newspaper editorialist…

🎟️ Get tickets now: roxie.com/film/garra...

#SilentFilm #FilmRestoration #ColombianCinema #GarrasDeOro #WorldCinema #LiveScore #FilmHistory #FilmSky
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Don’t miss this rare screening of a film once thought lost to time — restored by Fundación Patrimonio Fílmico Colombiano and co-presented by #SanFranciscoFilmPreserve.

📍 #RoxieTheater, 3117 16th St, San Francisco
🎬 Presented as part of CiNEOLA’s COLOMBIA ON FILM
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🎶 Featuring a live original score by local ensemble Nobozos
🎙️ Followed by a panel discussion with Kathy Rose O’Regan (San Francisco Film Preserve), Alex Feliciano Mejia (SFSU), and Héctor Hoyos (Stanford) on the film’s history and restoration.
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Widely regarded as World Cinema’s first explicitly anti-imperialist film, this Colombian landmark takes aim at U.S. interventionism through a daring critique of Theodore Roosevelt’s role in Panama’s separation.
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✨ Bay Area Premiere!

Once considered lost, GARRAS DE ORO (The Dawn of Justice, 1927) roars back to life on the big screen — this Saturday, November 15 at 1 PM at the Roxie Theater.
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$75 = 1 minute of a restored 35mm print

Every dollar helps — no matter the amount. Time waits for no film, and with your support, we can continue to restore, preserve, and share groundbreaking works of cinema.

filmpreserve.org/don...

Thank you for keeping film alive!
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📣 Advocacy – Free “Online with SFFP” programs, student grants
💻 Administration – Staff, hardware, software, and essentials

And here’s what your contribution makes possible:
$10 = 1 second of saved film
$25 = 5 film cans for new 35mm elements
$50 = 10 seconds of new 35mm negative
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Here’s where your #donation to #SanFranciscoFilmPreserve goes:
🎞️ Restoration – Scanning, digital cleanup, and grading
📽️ Preservation – Creating new 35mm negatives and prints
🌐 Access – Online screenings, live events, Blu-rays
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As 2025 winds down, we’re already looking ahead — 2026 is shaping up to be our busiest year yet! Seven restorations are on the slate, plus screenings, live events, monthly online presentations, and so much more. #FilmSky

But none of it happens without your support. 💛

filmpreserve.org/don...
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Watch the complete, newly restored silent film, featuring a new score by the renowned Stephen Horne, on San Francisco Film Preserve’s website: https://filmpreserve.org/restoration/the-white-heather/ “The White Heather,” directed by Maurice Tourneur. Starring: Holmes Herbert, Mabel Ballin, Ben Alexa “The White Heather” (1919) | 2025 Restoration Clip | San Francisco Film Preserve

A lost film rises from the deep! 🌊 Maurice Tourneur’s THE WHITE HEATHER (1919), newly restored after being presumed lost, shimmers back to life. 🎬 Watch the clip here, then stream the full film for free at SFFP’s site.
www.youtube.com/watc...

#SanFranciscoFilmPreserve #SilentFilm #FilmSky