The Elävienkuvien Teatteri, Forssa, from http://www.forssasilentmovie.com

Mykkäelokuvafestivaaleilla, or – to give it its slightly less challenging name (for non-Finns) – the Forssa Silent Movie Festival, is Finland’s annual festival of silent film. This year’s festival takes place 27-29 August at the Elävienkuvien Teatteri, Forssa, with the lead attraction being four of John Ford’s silent features (hot on the heels of the silent Ford retrospective at Bologna). Most of the festival site is in Finnish, but they do supply one overview page in English, as follows:

This year’s eleventh international Silent Movie Festival will bring more classics to the silver screen. Main attention goes to legendary director John Ford. Ford became famous for his westerns after the silent era. One of Ford’s main actors was John Wayne, who also appeared on some of the silent film era movies. Traditions and Irish humour was vastly present in the movies of American-Irish director, who received an Oscar four times. From the 65 movies he directed in the silent era, only 15 has survived this long. Four of these will be shown on this year’s festival. The Shamrock Handicap, Hangman’s House, Three Bad Men and Iron Horse all portray Ford’s most beloved themes, Ireland and westerns.

We also honour the actor Lon Chaney. On August 26, day before the festival, will mark exactly 80 years from the actors death. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a marvellous movie and a perfect example of Chaney’s transformation skills. Broken Blossoms, was D.W. Griffith‘s greatest success, which verified his position within the leading directors of movie industry. Lillian Gish performs brilliantly, complementing fine camerawork and storytelling. Master of comedy, Harold Lloyd is once again present in this year’s festival. Eagerly waited movie by Stroheim, Queen Kelly will finally be on the programme. Russian Film Industry is also covered in Lev Kuleshov‘s visually great movie Mr. West.

As usual, all the movies will be accompanied with live music. This year, the variety of performers is wide: from single musician to an entire sinfony orchestra. Händel-orchestra will accompany festival’s climax, The Iron Horse on Sunday.

We’ve listened to feedback from viewers, and picked the programme according to tips we received. We welcome everyone to the 11th International Silent Film Festival in Forssa Finland to enjoy some of the greatest movies of silent era.

This is the daily programme:

Friday 27 August

* 17:00 Mr West (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)
* 19:30 The Shamrock Handicap (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)
* 21:00 Queen Kelly (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)

Saturday 28 August

* 12:00 Grandma’s Boy (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)
* 14:30 Hangman’s House (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)
* 17:00 Broken Blossoms
* 19:30 3 Bad Men (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)
* 22:00 The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Elävienkuvien Teatteri)

Sunday 29 August

* 13:00 The Iron Horse (Urheilutalo Feeniks)

Further details (in Finnish) are available on the festival site, which includes an archive section with copies of previous festival websites going back to 2001.