Virginia Film Festival

One hundred years ago, a slender man in a black bowler hat and ill-fitting suit (somehow both too baggy and too tight), sauntered into the middle of a car race twirling a cane, narrowly avoiding the danger surrounding him. This was the birth of what would become Charlie Chaplin’s enduring character The Tramp. This selection of early Chaplin shorts from 1914-1917, both well-known and less known, celebrates a century of one of America’s greatest icons of cinema. With new restorations by Serge Bromberg, David Shepard, and Lobster Films, films will include: Kid Auto Races at Venice, The Masquerader, The Fireman, Behind the Screen, and The Immigrant. Introduction by Randy Stith (Virginia Tech)

With live musical accompaniment by Matt Marshall & the Reel Music Trio

Supported by the Library of Congress