Events by this organizer

Returning to the Newhall Family Theatre is the Newhallywood Silent Film Festival presented by the City of Santa Clarita. The 2025 Newhallywood Silent Film Festival celebrates the film heritage of the Santa Clarita Valley and the film industry before the introduction of sound. This year’s festival honors Lon Chaney, the man of 1000 faces, and Director/Writer/Editor/Film Theorist Sergei Eisenstein.

The Festival starts off with a screening of Buster Keaton’s Go West, celebrating it’s 100th Anniversary. Written and directed by Buster Keaton, this film features Keaton as a drifter who travels west to make his fortune. Once there, he tries his hand at bronco-busting, cattle wrangling and dairy farming, eventually forming a bond with a cow named “Brown Eyes.” (Running time is 83 minutes)

Following that screening, the Festival continues with the Keaton short Cops originally released in 1922. Buster Keaton again stars in this short about a young man who accidentally gets on the bad side of the entire Los Angeles Police Department during a parade and is chased all over town. The United States Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry for preservation in 1997. (Running time is 18 minutes)

**Important note regarding parking: street parking is very limited. The Old Town Newhall Library parking lot, as well as the structure across the street, are located within short walking distance of the Newhall Family Theatre for the Performing Arts.**

Returning to the Newhall Family Theatre is the Newhallywood Silent Film Festival presented by the City of Santa Clarita. The 2025 Newhallywood Silent Film Festival celebrates the film heritage of the Santa Clarita Valley and the film industry before the introduction of sound. This year’s festival honors Lon Chaney, the man of 1000 faces, and Director/Writer/Editor/Film Theorist Sergei Eisenstein.

At 1:00 pm, the Festival begins with the documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces by Kevin Brownlow. Renowned for his various characterizations and celebrated for his horror films, this documentary explores how his deaf mute parents, and his own long-delayed ability to talk, helped him develop his expressive face and hand gestures utilized by his many film roles. (Running time is 85 minutes)

At 4:00 pm, will be a screening of Universal Pictures’ most successful silent film: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The classic Victor Hugo story is set in 15th-century Paris, the brother of the archdeacon plots with the gypsy king to foment a peasant revolt. Meanwhile, a freakish hunchback falls in love with a gypsy dancer. This film helped elevate Chaney from well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood. (Running time is 133 minutes)

Closing out the night, at 8:00 pm, will be the induction ceremony of Lon Chaney into the Newhallywood Hall of Fame and feature a screening of the iconic The Phantom of the Opera. Celebrating it’s 100th Anniversary, this adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel shows a mad, disfigured composer that seeks love with a young opera singer. This is one of the classic horror films from the silent era and was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1998. (Running time is 83 minutes)

**Important note regarding parking: street parking is very limited. The Old Town Newhall Library parking lot, as well as the structure across the street, are located within short walking distance of the Newhall Family Theatre for the Performing Arts.**

Returning to the Newhall Family Theatre is the Newhallywood Silent Film Festival presented by the City of Santa Clarita. The 2025 Newhallywood Silent Film Festival celebrates the film heritage of the Santa Clarita Valley and the film industry before the introduction of sound. This year’s festival honors Lon Chaney, the man of 1000 faces, and Director/Writer/Editor/Film Theorist Sergei Eisenstein.

Starting the day off, at 1:00 pm, is a screening of The Lost World, celebrating it’s 100th Anniversary. The Lost World is the first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam. This film is wildly known as being the first feature-length film to include model animation as the primary special effect. (Running time is 110 minutes)

At 3:30 pm, is a screening in honor of the 100th Anniversary of The Big Parade. Considered one of the most successful films of the silent era, and MGM’s most successful film of the silent era, this classic film tells the story of a young American soldier who witnesses the horrors of the Great War. Receiving praise for its realistic depiction of warfare, The Big Parade was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1992. (Running time is 151 minutes)

Closing out the Newhallywood Film Festival, at 8:00 pm, is the induction ceremony of Sergei Eisenstein and a screening of Battleship Potemkin, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its release. In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel’s officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre. See why film critics consider this to be one of the best  films of all time. (Running time is 71 minutes)

**Important note regarding parking: street parking is very limited. The Old Town Newhall Library parking lot, as well as the structure across the street, are located within short walking distance of the Newhall Family Theatre for the Performing Arts.**