Life Imitates Art: Buster Keaton Silent Film Night

Unfortunately we don't have any photos from the Buster Keaton Silent Film Night (August 26, 2008)! It is because we spent the whole show trying to keep our screen from collapsing.

The idea of screening a film at Starlight came from the exquisite young mind of Noyes intern Kristina Marrero. She got the idea when we were reviewing press kit submissions for Starlight back in February. One of the bands played music that sounded like something out of old Warner Bros cartoons. After a lot of research and dead ends, we found David Drazin, an Evanstonian and silent film buff who composes and performs original scores to Buster Keaton films. He gave us suggestions for films that would fit in our 1 1/2 hr time frame and he led us through the process of buying the rights to screen both films.

As this was the first time we have attempted to screen a film outdoors, I would say on the whole things went well. The highlight of the show was of course the fantastic Mr. Drazin. His scores to the films One Week and Sherlock Jr. captured the funny and suspenseful moments that are so singular to Buster Keaton films perfectly. He truly made the night a success.

Our screen was inflatable because that was all we could afford. We rented it from a company that also rents out "Moon Jumps." Yes, this should have been a red flag, but I was excited to have found an option that was both big enough and within our budget.

The screen was delivered, inflated, and staked at about noon. From noon to 5, the winds picked up immensely and also shifted from the East to the North. What we had initially set up to minimize wind resistance quickly turned into a massive white sail. The screen first collapsed at 5. The Facilities Management guys who were down at the park laughed really, really hard. We got the screen re-staked at 6 so that it was much tighter but by 7:30 the winds were such that we had to literally prop the screen up with our own weight.

As One Week, a film about a poorly constructed house that gets destroyed through a series of calamities was showing, we were behind the screen hoping the same thing didn't happen to us!

More severely unfortunate was when I walked around to the audience section and realized that the lamppost behind the screen was visible directly above it, shining like an evil cartoon character's nefarious idea--perhaps revenge for moving away from Kristina's original thought. I fear this, more than the wind, gave a strange and distracting effect to both films.

In the future, I think we will move the screen to the other side of the lagoon where it will catch the wind less and where the lampposts are more sparse. We certainly hope to work with David again next year!

xo Laura