Toronto Silent Film Festival presents SPARROWS

Toronto Silent Film Festival in partnership with the Mary Pickford Foundation and the Paradise Theatre presents the Toronto Premiere of the new restoration

Mary Pickford in Sparrows (1926) 1hr 35m

With Special Introduction by Eileen Whitfield author of Pickford, The Woman Who Made Hollywood

Legendary Mary Pickford stars as Molly the oldest of a group of orphans at a Dickensian “baby farm” deep in a dismal Southern swamp where they’re exploited sold as child labour or illegally adopted. She fiercely fights to protect them from the cruel owner but to save them she must escape by fleeing with them through the alligator infested swamps.

Sparrows is a beautifully stylized epic part drama part Gothic thriller held together by Pickford’s heart and humour and stunning cinematography.

Mary Pickford born here in Toronto in 1892 had already worked nearly 2 decades in the film industry by the time she made Sparrows-her second to last silent film. By 1926 she was the world’s most recognized woman “America’s Sweetheart” the Queen of Hollywood producer actor writer studio founder and top businesswoman. Mary’s captivating star power coupled with her onscreen underdog characters still resonates with audiences even at close to a century after production.

All screening materials courtesy of the Mary Pickford Foundation.

This screening will utilize the specially commissioned composed and recorded score by Taylor and Cameron Graves.

Director: William Beaudine

Cinematographers: Charles Rosher Karl Struss Hal Mohr

Set Design: Harry Oliver

Mary Pickford Gustav von Seyffertitz Roy Stewart

Bonus Shorts restored by the Mary Pickford Foundation with recorded commissioned scores.

Two of Pickford’s Biograph shorts directed by D. W. Griffith.

A Beast At Bay 1912

A Feud in the Kentucky Hills 1912

This Pickford event is co-presented by the Canadian Women in Film Museum www.cdnwomeninfilm.ca

Host or Publisher Toronto SILENT FILM Festival