Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is starting off 2025 with a lineup of their traditional Saturday night shows, covering the works of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and more, preceded by vintage film shorts. Events also spill over into Friday and Sunday.
The first film night of the year on Jan. 4 features the Buster Keaton film Spite Marriage, a story about a fan marrying a popular actress. The second Saturday of the month is Feel My Pulse, where a woman inherits a sanitarium that’s actually a front for bootleggers.
In the middle of the month the theater will show a Sunday matinee and Friday night movie, both “talkies.” Jan. 12, starting at 3pm, is a lineup of Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, and Charley Chase shorts, while the next Friday, Jan. 17 is the Marx Brothers film The Coconauts, where the quirky characters take over a Florida hotel.
On Jan. 18, three films (Dancing Mothers, “The Mothering Heart,” and “The Making of Broncho Billy”) are accompanied by a book signing from Simone O. Elias, author of Old Films, Young Eyes: A Teenage Take on Hollywood’s Golden Age, which explores how old movies can resonate with teens in the age of social media.
The month ends with a comedy shorts night on Jan. 25, starring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel & Hardy.
Doors open at 7pm on Saturday; requested donation is $8 for members, $10 for not yet members.
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
37417 Niles Blvd., Fremont
