A scene from Oscar Micheaux’s drama “Within Our Gates” (1920), the first U.S. feature-length film directed by an Afro-American. The film will be shown in 35mm with live music on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2:00 p.m.

A series of vintage classics with live music

What encompasses the Civil War, fairy tales, racial discrimination, warring clans, and slapstick comedy?

No, it’s not the latest political rally, it’s ‘Silents, Please,’ the Somerville Theatre’s series of vintage silent classics shown on the big screen with live music.
The 2023 series kicks off on Sunday, February 5 at 2:00 p.m. with a screening of Within Our Gates (1920), the first U.S. feature-length film to be directed by an African-American, Oscar Micheaux.

Eight more titles will follow at the historic Davis Square movie house, ranging from Buster Keaton’s classic comedy Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) to The Fire Brigade (1927), a recently restored MGM blockbuster about an Irish family of firefighters.

All films in the series will be shown using 35mm prints, with most on loan from the U.S. Library of Congress.

“These motion pictures are why people first fell in love with the movies,” said Ian Judge, creative director for the Somerville Theatre, located at 55 Davis Square, Somerville.

“Now, a century later, the best way to experience their power over audiences is to show them as originally intended,” Judge said. “That means on the big screen, using actual 35mm film, with an audience, and with live music.”

Supplying music will be silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in creating live scores for silent film screenings at venues around New England and beyond.

“It’s a privilege to work with so many great titles in the Somerville’s ‘Silents, Please’ series,” Rapsis said.

In the tradition of theatre organists of the 1920s, Rapsis improvises each film’s score on the spot, making up the music as the movie is screened. Rapsis uses a digital synthesizer to create the texture of a full orchestra.

“It’s a bit of a high wire act, but an improvised score for a silent film can have a whole different character and quality of spontaneity compared to a written-out score,” Rapsis said.

Following Within Our Gates, the ‘Silents, Please!’ schedule features a broad range of titles, from well-known classics to obscure films rarely seen since their release, which in some cases was more than a century ago.

Several programs are double bills on a common theme, such as a July program saluting Canada Day with two films set in the Canadian West.

Here’s a roster of films in the series, which runs through November, 2023.

• Sunday, Feb. 5, 2:00 p.m.: Within Our Gates (1920). We salute Black History Month with a screening of ‘Within Our Gates’ (1920), the landmark drama from pioneer African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The plot features an African-American woman who goes North in an effort to raise money for a rural school in the Deep South for poor black children. Her romance with a black doctor eventually leads to revelations about her family’s past and her own mixed-race, European ancestry.

• Sunday, March 5, 2:00 p.m.: Annie Laurie (1927) starring Lillian Gish and Cinderella (1914). Celebrate Women’s History Month with a double feature of two films featuring leading ladies of early Hollywood. ‘Annie Laurie’ (1927), a rarely-screened MGM epic about warring Scottish clans, features silent-era megastar Lillian Gish as leading lady while legions of men in kilts do battle. Plus, an early adaptation of ‘Cinderella’ (1914) starring film industry pioneer Mary Pickford.

• Sunday, May 7, 2:00 p.m.: Buster Keaton ‘Boats and Trains’ Double Feature! Two Keaton classics in which Buster creates large-scale comedy with big machines. In Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Buster plays the effete college-educated son of a rough-hewn riverboat captain who must help his father fight a domineering businessman—who just happens to be the father of Buster’s girlfriend. In The General (1926), Buster’s Civil War-era masterpiece tells the story of a Confederate railroad engineer whose train is hijacked by Northern spies.

• Sunday, July 9, 2:00 p.m.: Salute to Canada Double Feature! To mark “Canada Day” (July 1), we salute our neighbors with a double helping of vintage cinema set north of the border. In ‘Mantrap‘ (1926), silent-era “It” girl Clara Bow stars in a battle-of-the-sexes comedy about a big city divorce lawyer hoping to get away from it all at a Canadian wilderness retreat. ‘The Canadian‘ (1926) stars Thomas Meighan in the tale of a pioneering couple homesteading in Alberta, where they battle bad weather and financial woes.

• Sunday, Sept. 10, 2:00 p.m.: The Fire Brigade (1926). MGM’s blockbuster production stars Charles Ray as the youngest in a long line of fearless Irish American firefighters. Things get complicated when he falls in love with the daughter (May McEvoy) of a crooked building contractor. Spectacular fire sequences with hand-colored effects included in this recent Library of Congress restoration.

• Sunday, Nov. 12, 2:00 p.m.: The Big Parade (1925) starring John Gilbert, Renée Adoree. We salute Veterans Day with this sweeping saga about U.S. doughboys signing up and shipping off to France in 1917, where they face experiences that will change their lives forever – if they return. MGM blockbuster directed by King Vidor; one of the biggest box office triumphs of the silent era.

For more on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.