The Dock-u-mentaries film series continues Friday, February 17th at 7 PM with two silent films. The Sailor’s Sacrifice is a short (13 minute) romance drama by the Vitagraph Company shot in 1909 southern Maine. A sailor leaves his family to go to sea and is thought lost when his boat sinks. The family loses its home and the young woman has to dig clams with her dog Jean. Our evening feature is the ever popular Down to the Sea in Ships (83 minutes long). This whaling drama is most famous as the screen debut of Clara Bow. Besides that, it is also solid entertainment, offering both the best (documentary-like scenes of a whale being gutted) and the worst (some scenery-devouring histrionics) that silent film had to offer. Shot on location in New Bedford and New England in 1922, the intertitles are sprinkled with quotes from Moby Dick and other whaling books.
Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the Working Waterfront Festival. Films about the working waterfront will be screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 PM in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.
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love it! tried to set up an “old film night” first tuesday of every month several yrs ago w/the Z but they blew me off…good to see this happening! I have plenty of old films if they need some!