On May 15th, 2015, producer-director (and USC class of 1986 alumnus) Jay Roach delivered the commencement address at the USC School of Cinematic Arts graduation at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Roach presented screenwriter and producer Melissa Rosenberg with the Mary Pickford Foundation Alumni Award.
Announcements
Malcolm Boyd 1923-2015
February 28th, 2015
The Mary Pickford Foundation wishes to acknowledge the passing of Mary Pickford’s friend and former business partner Malcolm Boyd. P.R.B. (which stood for Pickford-Rogers-Boyd) was the name of their radio and television production company.
Read more about Boyd’s life and legacy here.
My Best Girl at UCLA Festival
The Mary Pickford Foundation is pleased to announce a screening of the restored print of My Best Girl (1927), Mary’s final silent film, at the 2015 UCLA Festival of Preservation on Sunday, March 15th at 7 pm. This charming romantic comedy directed by Sam Taylor and co-starring Charles “Buddy” Rogers is often considered Pickford’s finest film and is not to be missed on the big screen.
Also showing are two rarely-screened early Pickford shorts, the Biograph The Son’s Return (1909) directed by D.W. Griffith, and the IMP A Manly Man (1911), directed by Thomas Ince. Jere Guldin, Senior Film Preservationist at UCLA Film & Television Archive, will be on hand to discuss the films and live musical accompaniment will be provided by Cliff Retallick.
Click here for tickets and more details.
Little Annie Rooney Restoration Premiere
On November 3rd, the third Annual Mary Pickford Celebration of Silent Film, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in partnership with the Mary Pickford Foundation, will host the world premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s restoration of Little Annie Rooney (1925) from Mary Pickford’s own 35mm nitrate print held in the Mary Pickford Collection at the Library of Congress.
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Sparrows in New York
October 11th, 2014
Mary Pickford’s Sparrows (1926) will be screened on Saturday, October 11th at 2:30 p.m. at the Bruno Walter Auditorium inside the New York Public Library for Performing Arts in New York City. The Sparrows matinee, utilizing a restored 35mm print from the Library of Congress, is part of “The Silent Clowns” film series and will be introduced by Jeffrey Vance, with piano accompaniment by Ben Model. Click here for tickets and details.
The Hoodlum in Huntington, NY
On September 16th, silent film accompanist Ben Model will be performing a score for The Hoodlum, a Mary Pickford comedy from 1919, at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York. Don’t miss your chance to see Pickford in a role that Variety claimed “will send them away delighted and happy,” with live music by one of the leading silent film accompanists in the industry. Visit the Cinema Arts Centre website for tickets and details.
Pickford Films at Cinecon 50
Pickford Celebrated in NYC Summer 2014
The Mary Pickford Foundation and the Silent Clowns Film Series presents MARY PICKFORD: SWEETHEART – SUPERSTAR!, a special series featuring four of Mary Pickford’s most popular comedy and drama features this summer in New York City. Catch Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) on May 10th, Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918) along with the shorts Their First Misunderstanding (1911) and They Would Elope (1909) on June 14th, A Little Princess along with the shorts The School Teacher and the Waif (1912) and Love Among the Roses (1910) on July 12th, and Stella Maris (1918) along with the shorts The Englishman and the Girl (1910) and The Dream (1911) on August 2nd. Films are screened at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the back of Lincoln Center and will feature live accompaniment by Ben Model. Visit the SCFS site for tickets and details.
Pepperdine New Music with Film
On Saturday April 12th, the Mary Pickford Foundation and Pepperdine University present the world premiere of three original music scores for Mary Pickford films. Student composers Matthew Aune, Andy Gladbach and Thomas B. Yee have scored the 1912 Biographs A Lodging for the Night, The School Teacher and the Waif, and So Near, Yet So Far. The films will be screened in the Pepperdine Amphitheater with accompaniment by the Pickford Ensemble under the direction of N. Lincoln Hanks. Admission is free. For more details, visit the Pepperdine Fine Arts Division site.
Cinefest 2014: MPF Presents Fanchon the Cricket
“There was never a sweeter cricket than Fanchon … and there was never a Fanchon like Mary Pickford,” said The Moving Picture World upon Fanchon the Cricket‘s 1915 release. Adapted by Frances Marion from a George Sand novel, the film was believed to be lost for decades. In the 1990s three of five reels were discovered in England, and now the Mary Pickford Foundation is pleased to announce a screening of the complete feature at Cinefest 2014 in Syracuse, N.Y.
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Early Mary Pickford at Hollywood Heritage
On Wednesday, March 5th, the Mary Pickford Foundation and the Hollywood Heritage Museum present an Evening at the Barn with early Mary Pickford rarities. Wildly popular upon its 1915 release, Rags is one of the oldest surviving Pickford blockbusters. In the film, Mary plays both a spirited waif and her mother alongside Mary’s future director Marshall Neilan. Preceding the feature will be the 1912 Biograph short A Lodging for the Night, accompanied by Andrew Manley. The show begins at 7:30 pm at the Barn on Highland. To reserve a seat, visit Brown Paper Tickets.
The Pepperdine/Pickford Short Film Composition Project
The Mary Pickford Foundation has provided a scholarship grant to Pepperdine University students to compose and perform original music for Biograph short films starring Mary Pickford. Students will be composing scores for the 1912 short films, The School Teacher and the Waif; So Near, Yet So Far and A Lodging for the Night. Filmmaker, archivist, musician and Grammy winner Alan Boyd will be working with the Foundation’s Elaina Friedrichsen and Henry Stotsenberg in this endeavor.
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Chapman University/Dodge College of Film and Media Arts MPF Internship Program
The Mary Pickford Foundation is proud to support an internship program at Chapman University’s Dodge College. During the Winter 2014 term, two Masters students, Caitlin McCain and Skylar Hunter, selected by Assistant Professor of Film Studies, Emily Carman, will be cataloging archivist Alan Boyd’s nitrate film collection under his direct supervision.
Long-Lost Pickford Film Discovered
Their First Misunderstanding (1911) was Mary Pickford’s first short for Carl Laemmle’s IMP studio after she left the Biograph Company in late 1910. (Read more about Mary’s IMP experience here and here.) Long considered a “lost” film, this treasure was discovered in a New Hampshire barn and recently donated to Keene State College, which worked with the Library of Congress to restore the film.
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Mary Pickford Foundation at Cinecon 2013
Exciting news for all Cinephiles and silent fans: on this Labor Day weekend the Mary Pickford Foundation will join the annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Hollywood for a special screening of two Mary Pickford films, The Pride of the Clan and The School Teacher and the Waif. The Pride of the Clan has not been shown in Los Angeles in over 20 years, and this rare Biograph short has not been on the big screen in decades.
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Mary Pickford Foundation Preservation Bootcamp
December Updates – Mary Pickford Foundation
Mary Pickford Foundation now has an official Facebook page.’Like’ us to keep track of news, events, screenings and more.
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