The amazing Stummfilm live festival at Babylon Kino in Berlin

So I have spent the last five days totally immersed in the world of 1925 silent cinema. Below is a list of the films I saw with either a live orchestra or a live organ or piano score played in time with the film like it used to be done. I think Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin was my favorite of all followed closely by Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. I really enjoyed Strike! (but the slaughtering of the bull at the end turned my stomach) and although I kind of hated it while I was watching it, Die freudlose Gasse has haunted me for days.

Still, my two favorite silent films of all time are from 1927: Metropolis and Bed and Sofa (but I obviously need more).

Films from the 2025 Babylon Kino Stummfilm live festival

These are the ones I managed to catch over the first five days of it

  1. Battleship Potemkin (USSR -1925) Directed by S. Eisenstein (live orchestra)

  2. The Freshman (USA 1925) Directed by R. F. C. Newmeyer (live organ)

  3. Strike! (USSR 1925) Directed by S. Eisenstein (live organ)

  4. Lady Windemere’s Fan (USA 1925) Directed by E. Lubitsch (live organ)

  5. Die freudlose Gasse (Germany 1925) Directed by G.W. Pabst (live organ)

  6. Seven Chances (USA 1925) Directed by B. Keaton (live organ)

  7. Go West! (USA 1925) Directed by B. Keaton (live piano)

  8. Ben Hur (USA 1925) Directed by Fred Niblo (live organ)

  9. The Goldrush (USA 1925) Directed by Charlie Chaplin (full orchestra)

  10. The Pleasure Garden (USA 1925) Directed by A. Hitchcock (live organ)

  11. Variety (Germany 1925) Directed by E.A. Dupont (live piano)

A magical night at the New York Public Library

I made a quick train dash up to Manhattan for the 100th anniversary of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, which threw a huge party in Astor Hall of the New York Public Library. I won my fellowship in 2012, which seems like a million years ago. It funded my trip to Zambia and the work that I did for the book Second World, Second Sex.