One of the great aspects of the Marathon is the event showing Silent Movies, usually with LIVE musical scores played in the theatre.

But, as most genre fans know, there is a very limited number of genuine sci-fi movies that were made, and even fewer that survive with showable prints.

Should the Silent Film "slot" be an annual event or space them out more??

Coming from an ever-so-slightly biased point of view: as the festival's house accompanist, I'm certainly in favor of silents at the marathon! Creating live music for early sci-fi epics at the 'Thon is one of the yearly highlights of my performance calendar: few audiences are as enthusiastic, and audience response is a big part of the silent film experience. Also, it's a real privilege to bring to life visionary cinema from an era when filmmakers were just discovering the possibilities of the movie camera, sci-fi or otherwise. Often these are films you simply won't see elsewhere, and the chance to bring them to life once again on the Somerville's big screen in front of an audience is a part of the Marathon to be savored.

Given the limited number of silent sci-fi films, might be better to space them out a bit. Then again I'm not getting any younger and it might be nice to see them all before I leave for the next planet.