Wharton Studio Museum is hosting its 12th annual “Silent Movie Month” this October in collaboration with Cornell Cinema, Odyssey Bookstore and other local organizations to celebrate Ithaca’s early movie-making history through screenings and exhibits. Unique to this year’s festivities is a special tribute to Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong, whose career helped advance Asian-American representation on screen.
Diana Riesman, the executive director and co-founder of the Wharton Studio Museum — a local museum with the mission to preserve and celebrate Ithaca’s significant role in early American filmmaking — instituted the annual tradition in 2012.
“We went to the City of Ithaca and asked if they could [officially] proclaim October [as] Silent Movie month in Ithaca,” Riesman said. “It’s kind of evolved every year.”
Cornell Cinema kicked off this year’s month-long festivities by presenting “The Toll of the Sea” on Oct. 2, which features Wong in her first starring role. Ithaca’s Cloud Chamber Orchestra provided live musical accompaniment for the screening.
Wong, known as Hollywood’s first Asian-American film star, starred in over 60 films throughout her career, such as “Impact” and “Daughter of Shanghai.”
Throughout October and early November, Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinema will continue screening Wong’s films including “Daughter of the Dragon,” “Piccadilly,” “Shanghai Express,” and the first-ever version of “Peter Pan,” in which Wong starred as Tigerlily.
“When I started talking with Diana [Riesman] about how to be involved in Silent Movie Month, it felt like a really exciting opportunity to celebrate [Wong’s] career and also to think about the local connections to this sort of international superstar,” said Molly Ryan, Cornell Cinema’s director.
Wong oversaw several periods of tremendous change in the film industry throughout her…
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