SF/Arts Curator Insight

SFSFF opens with a Kerpow!,Technicolor restoration of “The Black Pirate.” It stars a robust and daring Douglas Fairbanks, turning to chicanery on the high seas after playing Zorro, a Musketeer and Robin Hood, and doing his own thrilling stunts before Tom Cruise could say boo. In “Sherlock Jr,” a comic romp said to have influenced “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” Buster Keaton utilizes trick shots and special effects in the tale of a lovesick film projectionist whose side hustle as an amateur detective gets him into trouble.