"Help Yourself" / THE SLANDERERS

ABOUT THE EVENT: Prior to the screening, Los Angeles Silent Film Festival merch will be available for purchase in the auditorium. ABOUT THE FILMS: “Help Yourself,” 1927, Dir. Joe Pasternak, 20 Mins, Dino Everett/USC, USA Long believed lost, “Help Yourself” (1927) stars Swedish-born comedian El Brendel as a hungry drifter whose search for a meal unexpectedly leads to romance. Produced by future Hollywood legends Joe Pasternak and William R. Wilkerson before either achieved fame, the film was never released, and its negative was eventually destroyed. Surviving elements, discovered more than ninety years later, have now been painstakingly reconstructed by USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive Curator Dino Everett and film collector Louie Despres, making this screening the first opportunity in nearly a century to experience this forgotten comedy. FORMAT: DCP THE SLANDERERS, 1924, Dir. Nat Ross, 60 Mins, Dino Everett/USC, USA The world premiere restoration of THE SLANDERERS (1924), a previously lost feature preserved from the only known surviving copy, a 16mm print recently discovered in the USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive. Directed by Nat Ross, the film follows a World War I veteran who returns home only to find himself confronting the corruption, rumor and small-town bureaucracy that threaten both his reputation and his future. Blending timely social commentary with compelling drama, THE SLANDERERS explores how quickly false accusations can overwhelm truth, a theme that remains remarkably relevant a century after the film was made. FORMAT: DCP