SOUVENIR 20 th ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM ($5) October 26, 27 & 28, 2012 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF THE MARIE DRESSLER FOUNDATION It is unbelievable that I am addressing you on this our twentieth anniversary of the annual Vintage Film Festival. We started off in a very small manner and held our fi rst fi lm festival at the Best Western Inn. It was perhaps a grand vision that our small committee had, but it garnered enough interest that we decided to do it again… and again. In those fi rst years we used many diff erent venues in Cobourg, the Best Western Inn, Northumberland Heights, Victoria Hall. We showed Dinner at Eight at the Park Th eatre on King Street in Cobourg. We now use the splendid Capitol Th eatre, the Mary J. Benson Public Library in Port Hope, and Victoria Hall in Cobourg. Our committee has grown and we have many talented and proud people who assist in putting on the Festival. Th ey choose the fi lms, set up the venues, choose interesting speakers for you, give you more knowledge of these gifted stars and make you comfortable. We hope that you have enjoyed our silent fi lms, our talented pianists, our very special guests such as Elwy Yost, his facts on the movies, the lunches, the dinners and the classic ‘talkies’. Marie Dressler was a very talented and resourceful actress and woman, and we are proud to carry on part of her heritage. Alma Draper and her team have chosen graduating students who are continuing their education in the Arts for bursaries through the years. In this way, Marie Dressler’s gifts are continued in this very important endowment. Please be sure to visit the Min and Bill set and the unique Dressler Room at the Chamber of Commerce in the Dressler House at 212 King Street West in Cobourg. We are so pleased to have gathered so many mementos of Marie’s life and the men and women who have written books or donated family articles have added to the ambience of the room. Th ank you for taking part in this year’s festival and do enjoy the fi lms and the extra festivities that mark this twentieth year. Delphine Patchett Chair, Th e Marie Dressler Foundation MARILYN PETERS, 1939-2012 Marilyn Peters was an enthusiastic and valuable member of the Vintage Film Festival Committee, organizing fund-raising, hosting meetings and assisting at the Friday night registration at Victoria Hall. A former business executive and co-owner of a Bay Street, Toronto, insurance brokerage, Marilyn contributed her practical knowledge to our festival. Whether she was lugging boxes of programs to Victoria Hall or greeting and chatting with guests at the Capitol Th eatre, Marilyn gave generously of her time and resources. On our cover: Marie Dressler with the Academy Award she won for her performance in Min & Bill. Th e terms Academy Award® and Oscar® are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. - 2 - FROM THE FESTIVAL COMMITTEE CHAIR It’s my pleasure to welcome you to our 20th anniversary Vintage Film Festival. If this is your fi rst visit to our festival, thank you for joining us; if you are a returning vintage fi lm addict, welcome home. Th e members of the VFF Committee have done an incredible job this year. While working extra-long and hard on what we hope you’ll fi nd is a phenomenal 20th anniversary festival, they have given added energy for an ongoing and exciting strategic planning project. We have given ourselves plans and tasks for the next fi ve years. One of our immediate jobs for the next year is to change the organization of the VFF Committee, and to recruit at least 20 volunteers from our supporters who will lend some of their time and energy to work with us on individual projects. Might you have a few hours to help with editing the festival souvenir program? Distributing posters? Recruiting sponsors? Writing and sending out news bulletins and press releases? Establishing VFF as a friend of high school, college and university fi lm and media courses? Helping at our Sunday afternoon screenings? Working on advertising and publicity? Contributing to our Facebook and Twitter presence? Helping in any one of a dozen other ways? We hope some of you will want to join the excitement. Please talk to me or to any committee member, or send a message to me [cworsnop@vintagefi lmfestival.ca]. We’d love to have your experience and enthusiasm to help us. Again this year, generous sponsors have helped with our two priority projects: the festival itself, and supporting students. You will fi nd these organizations and individuals listed in the program book and on the screen presentation between fi lms. If you have the opportunity, please add your thanks to ours. Last year we partnered with 4th Line Th eatre to cross-promote our activities as they prepared a play about Marie Dressler -Queen Marie, by Shirley Barrie – which played to very positive reviews in July. You may have seen our half-page promotion in their program this summer. Th is year we have partnered with the new owner of the Northumberland Mall Th eatres, Ken Prue, to present two fi lms in a Sunday afternoon time slot. Th e fi rst, in June, was Buster Keaton’sTh e General, and the second, last Sunday was David Lean’s Great Expectations. (2012 is the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’s birth.) We will be continuing these Sunday fi lms on an irregular schedule in future. Th e next will be Preston Sturges’s Christmas in July on December 9. Since the feature runs under 70 minutes, we will also be showing three vintage shorts, including the only fi lm that featured Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin together. Another partner this year, the National Film Board of Canada, has generously donated NFB documentaries and award-winning fi lms for our all-day-Saturday free program at the Port Hope Public Library, across the road from the Capitol Th eatre. Our Brown Bag lunch session was such a hit last year that it is a hot ticket this year and will become a regular festival feature. We are tremendously pleased that the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell has accepted our invitation to speak about the Oscars. Th is year we have given two $1000 bursaries to local graduating students entering college or university to take up studies in a film- related area. You will fi nd a special feature on our bursary program in this program book. We have received a $1000 donation from the Retired Teachers of Ontario ‘Service to Others’ project, and invested it in subsidies for student tickets to this year’s festival. Please make a point of welcoming those students to our vintage fi lm world. Th ere are few pleasures greater than that of enjoying a good fi lm in a darkened theatre surrounded by people whose taste in films matches your own. Our major job in the Vintage Film Festival committee is to get better each year at providing that pleasure for you. Chris M. Worsnop Festival Chair - 3 - PROGRAMME Friday, October 26th Saturday, October 27th VICTORIA HALL, COBOURG CAPITOL THEATRE, PORT HOPE 4:30 p.m. Registration 9:00 a.m. Registration 5:20 p.m. Town Crier/Announcements 9:30 a.m. Th e Music Box (1932) 5:30 p.m. It Happened One Night (1934) 10:05 a.m. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 7:15 p.m. Reception 12:20 p.m. Lunch 8:00 p.m. Seventh Heaven* (1927) 1:20 p.m. Rebecca (1940) 9:35 p.m. Break 3:35 p.m. Break 10:10 p.m. Min and Bill (1930) 3:50 p.m. Wings* (1927) 11:20 p.m. Program fi nishes 6:15 p.m. Dinner 7:45 p.m. An American in Paris (1951) Reception is sponsored by 9:40 p.m. Break RBC Wealth Management – Dominion Securities. 9:55 p.m. Rashomon (1950) Catered by the Buttermilk Café. Anniversary cake by Cait’s Cakes. 11:20 p.m. Program fi nishes Sunday, October 28th * Silent CAPITOL THEATRE, PORT HOPE Piano accompaniment to Silent fi lms will be by 9:00 a.m. Registration Andrei Streliaev. 9:30 a.m. Th e Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Note that although every eff ort is made to avoid it, the 12:40 p.m. Brown Bag Lunch Discussion - program may be subject to change without notice. Toronto Star Film Critic Peter Howell on the Academy Awards In consideration of others, please refrain from wearing 1:45 p.m. Th e Circus* (1928) fragrance, turn off your cell phone and, please, no talking 3:00 p.m. Break during the fi lms, particularly if it involves the use of the 3:15 p.m. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) word awesome. 5:25 p.m. Program fi nishes Th ank you for your understanding. Enjoy the Festival. Marie Dressler Vintage Film Festival Free Program Saturday, October 27, 2012 – PORT HOPE PUBLIC LIBRARY 10:00 a.m. Has Anybody Here Seen Canada? A History of Canadian Made Movies 1939-1953 (1979) 11:00 a.m. Th e Railrodder (1965) 12:00 p.m. Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) 1:00 p.m. Neighbours (1952) 1:10 p.m. Th e Lost Garden: the life and cinema of Alice Guy Blaché (1995) 2:05 p.m. Churchill’s Island (1941) 2:30 p.m. White Th under (2002) 3:25 p.m.