The Pordenone Silent Film Festival ("Le Giornate del Cinema Muto") is the best known and most honored of the surprising number of festivals events around the globe devoted to the silent film era. Each year Pordenone features programs devoted to particular stars and themes of silent movies, be they Disney's Silly Symphonies, D.W. Griffith, or European comedians.

This festival may not be of immediate interest to many film goers, but movie lovers should know the impressive history of silent films: they were very well made, often of feature length, very often with color tints and even 2-color Technicolor. The Pordenone festival takes great care in screening the best available prints of the selected films. You will be quite surprised to see the extraordinary visual power, high production values, and strong acting and directing evident in these movies. Too often, the few silent era films that most of us have seen are poor copies of copies, with bad musical accompaniment.

The festival itself is held in Pordenone, (the Portus Naonis of Roman origin), about 50 miles north of Venice, with screenings in movie theatres and palaces.

Pordenone (named after Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis, Il Pordenone, 1483-1539) is in the midst of lovely farmland, and is the provincial capital of the province of Friuli. It has arcades, museums, and palaces and is on the river Noncello. In addition, you can visit Treviso, Aguileia, Germona, Valvasone, and of course Venice.

Our hotel will be the Hotel Minerva, in the center of town and literally around the corner from the main festival movie theatre.

Getting to Pordenone from Venice is quite easy; the rail journey is about a hour.

The program and events are conducted in both English and Italian.