Ben Model’s blog

  • Here’s a first report from Tromsø and the first installment of what I hope will be a regularly posted (weekly?) video blog that will be on YouTube and will also turn up here: Opening night film was The Passion of Joan of Arc, with score by Matti Bye. Friday found…

  • Well, I’m off to Tromsø today…will land there midday Thurs. Am traveling solo again this year as the fest coincides with the first week of school here. Will plan to post festival reports each day, if I can. Opening night film is a new restoration of The Passion of Joan…

  • Here’s a page from the “Stumfilm Dagere” festival catalog, which was just sent to me as a PDF. Click on the image to see it full size (and to see if you can understand the Norwegian text).

  • Am back from a few weeks of R&R out of town, and ready to launch into September. Am gearing up for my return to Norway for “Stumfilm Dagere”, 5 Sessue Hayakawa films at MoMA’s retrospective, the launch of the fall season of my Silent Clowns series, a show at Scandinavia…

  • Presented and accompanied a program of films from the Kino Reel Baseball DVD set at the Museum of the City of New York this afternoon. We showed The Busher, plus Hearts and Diamonds and Felix Saves the Day. We had a great crowd, biggest one so far in the five…

  • Have now slid through the first two days of Slapsticon, and am having a blast. Have seen a load of great comedy shorts, and am enjoying the Harry Langdon and Larry Semon entries. Tonight UCLA Film & TV’s new restoration of the Semon feature Spuds (1928) was screened (with yours…

  • Here we all are, kibitzing before going on-air for our segment, which lasted about 25 minutes. You can listen to our interview right here. http://www.silentclowns.com/podcast-audio/KojoNnamdi-slapsticon.mp3

  • Steve Massa and I arrived in DC bright and early, completely missing the big storm in NYC that delayed a number of peoples’ flight etc. Here I am outside the LOC building, right near the Capitol bldg, where Steve and I spent the day screening comedy shorts. At left you…

  • Well, I’m off (via Amtrak) this morning to Arlington, VA for the fifth annual Slapsticon where I’ll spend 4 fun-filled glorious days and nights watfching — and playing for — classic comedy shorts and features from the ’10s, ’20s and ’30s. I’ve been one of their accompanists every year since…

  • Played for Peg O’ My Heart at MoMA last night, and will play for its repeat on Thursday. Print is MoMA’s, acquired from Filmoteca Española, Madrid. Titles were all in English, possibly made by the archive as part of their preservation work, as they looked newer than the film. The…