In this Film Ireland podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to Robert Byrne, Film Preservationist and Restorer.
This year’s Dublin International Film Festival is hosting Silent Cinema: Restoration & Celebration. From conservation to ongoing screenings to composing and playing live musical accompaniment, this discussion will dissect the world of silent cinema and its place on our screens today.
The panel features Serge Bromberg and Robert Byrne. Bromberg is a renowned French film restorer and accompanist, as well as a producer, writer and director. Byrne is the President of the Board of the San Francisco Film Preserve and has spent his life in dedication to the restoration and preservation of films.
Silent Cinema: Restoration & Celebration takes place at The Complex on 23rd February.
The 2025 Dublin International Film Festival runs 20th February – 2nd March.
DIFF 2025 also features silent films with live accompaniment:
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed (accompanied by Conor Linehan) – Sat 22 Feb 14:00
• Silent Shorts Gala: Big Business, Mighty Like a Moose, & One Week (accompanied by Serge Bromberg) – Sun 23 Feb, 13:30
• Chemi Bebia (accompanied by Meg Morely) – Sat 1 March, 14:30
Robert Byrne
Robert Byrne is film preservationist and restorer specializing in early cinema and films of the silent era. Working with film archives and collections worldwide he has led restorations and resurrections of more than forty feature films and numerous short subjects. He has lectured at the Library of Congress, University College Cork, Queen’s University Belfast, The Reel Thing Symposium, and numerous AMIA and FIAF technical symposiums. He is co-author of FIAF Image Restoration, Manipulation, Treatment, and Ethics and publishes regularly on the topics of motion picture restoration and preservation. His work appears in the volume Films that Sell: Moving Pictures and Advertising, and he is co-author of Discovering Lost Films of Georges Méliès in fin-de-siècle Flip Books (1896–1901) and Tales from the Vaults: Film Technology over the Years and across Continents.
Rob holds a MA in Presentation and Preservation of the Moving Image from University of Amsterdam. He has served on the boards of the Global Film Initiative, Friends of the Oakland Fox Theatre, and the Castro Theatre Conservancy, and for more than twenty years has served on the board of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. He has recently founded the San Francisco Film Preserve, a nonprofit organization focused on restoring, preserving, and providing access to cinematic treasures across all generations.
Main image by Siddhant Vaidya.
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