I have been wanting to share this news for a long time. I am delighted to tell you that The Silent Film Companion: A Recovered and Expanded History is now available to pre-order from Rutgers University Press. This book, which will be published on 12 January 2027, contains 57 entries on individual silent films. It is intended as a guide for students who are studying these films, but it is also intended to broaden the scope of the silent cinema that students encounter in the first place, and it can well be enjoyed by those of us who do not have essays to write!

Editors Liz Clarke and Martin L. Johnson describe it this way:

Silent film is more than just a cinema of firsts, greats, or classics. It is a cinema of experimentation, ambition, and connection. To watch a silent film is to be transported into another world. The Silent Film Companion seeks to broaden the silent film canon by focusing on compelling non-canonical films from around the globe, providing a fresh perspective and new view of silent cinema. With over fifty films discussed, this volume captures just a sliver of the many delights silent cinema has to offer. It encourages discovery, and rediscovery, of the world of silent cinema: one where the movies were still young, full of possibility, and eager to entice others to take part in a wonderful adventure.

Films covered are from fourteen countries, including Brazil, Mexico, China, Cuba, India, Italy, and Russia, and represent a diversity of subjects. Each chapter provides historical and cultural context to the film, the filmmakers, and a concise analysis of each film. The Silent Film Companion is a must-read for students and fans of silent cinema interested in seeing a side of silent cinema that is rarely explored.

I love this line: “the world of silent cinema: one where the movies were still young, full of possibility, and eager to entice others to take part in a wonderful adventure.”

The films covered in this book are not exactly the same titles as you may have seen featured in previous silent film textbooks and reference books: there are actualities, serials, experiments, Black and indigenous performers and filmmakers, female filmmakers, queer subjects and work from around the globe. There should be something new here: either a film you don’t know, or a film you don’t see discussed often enough. The Silent Film Companion refreshes parts other textbooks cannot reach.

I haven’t seen a complete copy of the book yet (though the online table of contents is quite an education in itself) – I only know the brief essay that I contributed on a short film, Suspense (Lois Weber, 1913). But I know someone who has read the whole thing, and this is what she had to say:

“Spotlighting fifty-seven sizzling silent films whose subjects include lesbian air pirates, Black aviators, Martian communists, and feminist ‘saloon smashers’ (among others!), this crucial volume blows up all of our familiar assumptions about early cinematic history. It will be an invaluable resource for teaching, thinking, and living for many years to come.”

– Maggie Hennefeld, author of Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema

• The Silent Film Companion: A Recovered and Expanded History is published by Rutgers University press on 12 January 2027. It costs $39.95 in paperback, and is also available in hardback and as an ebook. You can save 30% on the price with the code RUP30 when you order direct from the publisher here.
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