Silent film festival to bring the rare drama and intrigue of the silent era to Yorkshire's oldest cinema screens

And for the first time, the world-famous Brighouse and Rastrick Band is to perform a new score as the first ever all-brass soundtrack for a silent film.

There is creeping horror, as only silent film knows. Slapstick comedy, swashbuckling greats. What is striking is that each film is to be accompanied by musicians, improvising as they go.

This is an art, and an incredible talent, said artistic director Jonny Best, that brings each screening to life with dramatic tempo.

He said: "Live music does something almost electric, to the body and the mind. It's completely alive, spontaneous, right there in the room with you.

"And there's something about a film, that is 100 years old, brought to life by musicians.

"It's that mix, of old and new. These beautiful old films, different every time as musicians create the score.

"It's a little taste of something like musical theatre or opera, but with film."

The festival launches October 14, in Hull. Then further shows from Hebden Bridge to Thirsk, Sheffield, Leyburn, York, Leeds and Holmfirth, as well as Saltburn.

These are historic settings, from the Ritz in Thirsk to Holmfirth's Picturedrome, and Sheffield's Yellow Arch Studios, found within an old Edwardian nuts and bolts factory.

Among showings is The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks as the original swashbuckler.

There's a centenary screening of Benjamin Christensen’s seminal Swedish silent film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, and the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Then the first public screening of a recently rediscovered 1918 film of George Eliot’s, Adam Bede, while eerie Swedish classic The Phantom Carriage is also to be shown.

For families there is a special event with slapstick greats in Hebden Bridge, encouraging children to join in with making music, as well as showings in Thirsk and Sheffield.

There is also early feminist comedy promising "mischief, anarchy and destruction" with Cinema’s First Nasty Women, celebrating the disruptive women of early film.

The festival closes November 6 at Morecambe's Winter Gardens, with the Rastrick and Brighouse Band accompanying Echoes of the North; Four Chapters in Time.

Featuring rarely seen early 20th century archive footage shot around the North of England, this will be world premiere.

To Mr Best, the festival is celebrating the art of live music to some of the best-known films from the early days of cinema, in settings which may have seen the silent era.

"These silent films were incredibly popular, it was an art that just swept across the world," he said. "We can promise interesting stories along with these haunting, beautiful images.

"This is interesting, pure and simple. It's quite an unusual art form, for 2022. It's something you won't get in a multiplex."

Yorkshire Silent Film Festival is supported with National Lottery funding from Arts Council England, and Film Hub North on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network.

Echoes of the North is commissioned by No Dots with support from PRS Foundation’s Open Fund for Organisations, and Arts Council England.