Programmed by Laura Perrachon, LSFF’s Young Programmer in residence, and made possible thanks to support from the BFI Film Festival Fund, awarding funds from The National Lottery.

Beginning from the titular Victor Hugo quote, this programme is designed to be accessible to people with hearing impairments as well as hearing audiences, creating a shared and uniquely immersive experience of silent film screened here without accompanying soundtrack. All films are on 35mm & 16mm, including experimental pieces by Hans Richter and Stan Brakhage and newer silent works by David Leister and Bea Haut, the slapstick comedy of Florence Turner‘s Daisy’s Doodad’s Dial and the early work of Cecil Hepworth.

Following the screening, a panel of experts made up of Bryony Dixon (BFI, where she works closely with silent cinema and restorations), Pamela Hutchinson (Silent London, a website for people who love silent film), and Maverick Litchfield-Kelley (Neath Films, who work with deaf filmmakers for deaf audiences),who will dissect the parallels between cinema in the modern and silent era, hosted by film journalist Ian Hayden Smith. 

The panel will be supported by a British Sign Language interpreter.
The Ex-Convict (Edwin S. Porter, 1904) 35mm

The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage 1955) 16mm

Time Piece (David Leister, 1989) 16mm

Tiny Tim’s New Year Gifts [Les Etrennes de Bout-de-zan] (Louis Feuillade 1913) 35mm

Split Second (Bea Haut, 2016) 35mm

Ghosts Before Breakfast (Hans Richter, 1928) 35mm

Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth and Lewis Fitzhamon, 1905) 35mm

Daisy Doodad’s Dial (Florence Turner, 1914) 35mm