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Mike Mashon

@mikemashon.bsky.social
1.3K followers 344 following 187 posts

Former Library of Congress film/video person, now at leisure. President of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Board Member, Association of Moving Image Archivists and IndieCollect. Geaux Tigers.

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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Delighted to get an excellent @rodger.bsky.social newsletter mere hours after visiting Paul McCartney’s boyhood home even if he overrates the song.
Paul McCartney’s boyhood home in Liverpool
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Bored kids in rural Texas.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A beloved favorite from my childhood (I adopted Micky as my new nickname in the summer of 1967) and when I think of my other favorites from then -- BATMAN and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND -- it's striking how absurdist all three were.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
No cheating, post your lock screen! Lola was a beloved companion, an outdoor girl through and through, shown here helping me clear a 20" snowfall in 2010.
black dog sitting in the snow
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Only time I've ever walked out of a film was CALIGULA (1979) and that was before they got to the hardcore inserts. (That said, last year's Ultimate Cut was merely terrible.)
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
With my the One True Bozo, Little Rock, AR, 1967.
seven year old Mike Mashon with Bozo the Clown in 1967
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Article makes reference to a 34" Sony CRT tipping the scales at 196 lbs. Had to move this big fella several times and can confirm.
34" Sony CRT weighing almost 200 lbs
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Nontheatrical Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group SCMS @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
CFP alert! The Association of Moving Image Archivists Conference Committee invites proposal submissions for sessions, posters, and workshops for the AMIA Annual Conference to be held December 2-4 in Pittsburgh, PA. Proposal deadline is June 8. Link for details: amiaconference.net/amia-2026-ca...
amiaconference.net
AMIA 2026 | Call for Proposals
The AMIA Conference Committee invites proposal submissions for sessions, posters, and workshops for the AMIA Annual Conference to be held December 2-4 in Pittsburgh, PA. The Conference Committee wo…
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Met Xie Jin in 2008 (a few months before his passing) during a trip to China with The Film Foundation. Great filmmaker; we really bonded over TWO STAGE SISTERS and RED DETACHMENT OF WOMEN. Inadvertently challenged him to a drinking contest--he crushed me--but that cemented our too brief friendship.
me with Xie Jin at the Xie Jin Movies Museum grand opening at his elementary school in Shangyu
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
this hit all my sweet spots 
** Elvis Costello (very) deep cut ** Beatles
 ** callback to the finale of St Elsewhere, still my favorite TV drama series
youtube.com
"Jump Up / Hello Goodbye" Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste, Louis Cato & Stephen Colbert
YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Can't overstate how much the arrival of SI in our mailbox was a highlight of my week as a kid. In addition to spectacular photography, their stable of writers was unparalleled: Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, William Nack, and Dan Jenkins were must-read bylines.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
My favorite silent film and a permanent resident in my @letterboxd.social Top 4. Exciting news!
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The Japanese Paper Film Project @kamifirumu.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Japanese Paper Films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival May 8 at 5pm! We are delighted to play at the amazing @castrotheatre.bsky.social with live music by Duo Yumeno #anime #japan #koto #film
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
A related side note: when Turner Entertainment registered colorized films for copyright -- on video, of course -- they also submitted new 35mm prints to the Library of Congress as a condition of the registration. See BRINGING UP BABY (lccn.loc.gov/91733359) as an example.
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Shelley Stamp @shelleystamp.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Heading up to San Francisco for the glorious Silent Film Festival! Highlights this year include QUEEN KELLY, BED & SOFA and THE CROWD. I’ll be introducing the feminist classic MISS LULU BETT on Thursday night. Join me! silentfilm.org
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Charlotte introduces THE CAVEMAN (Lewis Milestone, 1926), a delightful comedy with Marie Prevost, at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Friday at 7pm!
hollywoodreporter.com
100-Plus Years of Paramount History Are Under the Care of This Archivist
Charlotte Barker, director of film preservation and restoration at the studio, says, "I’ve found that when people don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, they tend to assume the worst."
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David Hudson @dwhdaily.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens tomorrow ! www.criterion.com/current/post...
Clara Bow cementing her It Girl rep in Victor Fleming’s HULA (1927).
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San Francisco Film Preserve @sffilmpreserve.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Our sparkling new restoration of Victor Fleming’s HULA (1927) screens THIS FRIDAY at 3 PM at @castrotheatre.bsky.social as part of the 29th San Francisco Silent Film Festival — and Clara Bow is absolutely electric. 🎬✨
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
A fan of Pre-Code? Thank this guy. Bruce's advocacy and programming has directly resulted in studios preserving in 35mm a wealth of Pre-Code titles that premiered at @filmforumnyc.bsky.social. (Of course, he was my first call when we discovered the uncut BABY FACE at @librarycongress.bsky.social!)
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Milestone Film & Video @milestonefilms.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Coming to the Castro this week! Gloria Swanson in Queen Kelly and the world premiere of The Humming Bird! San Francisco Silent Film Festival. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
sfchronicle.com
JFK’s dad bankrolled an unhinged silent film. Here’s how to get tickets to a rare screening
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens with “Queen Kelly” as it returns to the restored Castro Theatre for its 30th anniversary with a standout lineup.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Seconding Tanya's praise for The Field Guide to Sponsored Film. @filmpreservation.bsky.social has nearly 200 of them for viewing on their website!
filmpreservation.org
National Film Preservation Foundation: Sponsored Films
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Very excited to see this, especially with Stephen Horne accompanying and Library of Congress Moving Image Section Head Heather Linville introducing. Being Heather's predecessor, I am delighted to host the show on behalf of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival!
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Film Noir Foundation @noirfoundation.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival returns to the Castro Theatre May 6-10. We're pleased to be supporting screenings of QUEEN KELLY & BOOKKEEPER KREMEKE. Schedule and tix: silentfilm.org Use promo code NOIRSF at checkout for a $2 discount. #SFSFF2026
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Film Noir Foundation @noirfoundation.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival returns to the @castrotheatre.bsky.social May 6-10. We're pleased to be supporting screenings of QUEEN KELLY & BOOKKEEPER KREMEKE. Schedule and tix: silentfilm.org Use promo code NOIRSF at checkout for a $2 discount. #SFSFF2026 @eddiemuller.bsky.social
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Neckties of Noir @neckties-of-noir.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
#filmsky #moviesky #silents One year+ ago, I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s THE MANXMAN (1929) at San Francisco’s bastion of social justice, Grace Cathedral. Such an intense, and moving film. (Plays on Tubi/Plex,…) 👏🏼 Thanks to SF Silent Film Festival The 2026 schedule, starts May 6 silentfilm.org/festival
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
THE PATSY is Marion’s best (indeed, a top tier silent comedy in general) and @silentfilmmusic.bsky.social will sparkle. Don’t miss!
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I loved talking about the IRENE at the Library's Packard Campus in Culpeper, VA -- this one is in DC -- even if the tech seemed like science fiction (preserve a disc broken into pieces? no problem). This is a nice explainer of its wonders and it's interesting to see it being used on a Dictabelt.
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Neil Brand @neilkbrand.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Breakfast TV yesterday morning. Stan, Ollie and piano accompanist... youtu.be/fzVkMdGyHYs?...
youtu.be
Laurel and Hardy - 100 years on from their first film (USA/Global) 6/Apr/2026
YouTube video by Mark 1333
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
all right Michigan, I guess you earned it
Mike with the 2026 NCAA basketball championship trophy at the LBJ Library
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Shelley Stamp @shelleystamp.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Join me at the Denver Silent Film Festival next week!! 🎞️
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Grateful for this post because I've never seen the film this way. Persuasively contradicts my flippant remarks about it in a 2018 blog post about its preservation!
blogs.loc.gov
The First Film Version of Frankenstein, Newly Restored! | Now See Hear!
Rarely has the arrival of a film at the Packard Campus occasioned as much anticipation as the day in April 2015 when the sole surviving nitrate print of the first cinematic adaptation of Frankenstein ...
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🏳️‍🌈 Ms. Marya E. Gates 🦩 @oldfilmsflicker.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
todays must-read!!!
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Pamela Hutchinson @pamhutch.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Happy birthday to Gloria Swanson and happy publication day to my new book THE CURSE OF QUEEN KELLY, available from @stickingplacebk.bsky.social here stickingplacebooks.com/books/the-cu...
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
All of Marya's interviews are insightful, and this one with @pamhutch.bsky.social is a special delight.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Spectacular overview by @hennefem.bsky.social.
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
every so often I like to look at my notes from when we discovered the uncensored BABY FACE in the @librarycongress.bsky.social collections
handwritten notes from viewing a fine grain master of the uncensored Baby Face
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
What Guy said!
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
"Stan" is an exceptionally moving and affectionate play by the multi-talented Neil Brand, someone who's very much attuned to the personal relationship between Laurel and Hardy. Looking forward to hearing it again!
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Pamela Hutchinson @pamhutch.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
If you don’t know much about QUEEN KELLY, let me put it this way: the backstory to SUNSET BOULEVARD was even more shocking than you imagined…
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I was honored to blurb Pamela's brilliant new history of Queen Kelly, whose chaotic implosion has long begged for a treatment like this. It's a great read!
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
took me a while to recover from Bend Over Pac-Man
nytimes.com
‘Amora,’ ‘Anorak’ and the Fine Art of Getting Movie Titles Wrong
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
What a find! The LOC keeps turning up treasures.
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Dan Streible 💃🏻🌲🔔 @orphanfilm.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
The whole slate. April 8-11. 42 presentations, 17 sessions, 50+ presenters. wp.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/2...
wp.nyu.edu
Symposium Program, April 11 – Orphan Film Symposium
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
One of the greatest privileges of my life to help acquire the Frederick Wiseman Collection for @librarycongress.bsky.social; if you know his work, you can imagine how massive an acquisition it was. Fred was as extraordinary a person as he was a filmmaker.
Fred Wiseman and Mike Mashon, June 2003
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I use @letterboxd.social as a memory aid and the review feature as notes to my future self when inevitably I forget how I felt about a title in the moment. But it's full of perceptive and often hilarious commentary that has enriched my cinephilia.
nytimes.com
Why the Future of the Movies Lives on Letterboxd (Gift Article)
The entertainment industry is in crisis, but a social platform for film enthusiasts is thriving. Is it changing the way we watch?
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Spectacular conversation between two of the best, full of insight (and links! so many links!)
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Great article that doubles as a powerful testament to film preservation. Kudos to Katie Trainor, Greg Pierce, and the crew at Colorlab.
nytimes.com
Rediscovered Warhols That Warhol Never Saw
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National Film Preservation Foundation @filmpreservation.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
The Library of Congress has announced 25 new films added to the National Film Registry. Two silents from the teens have been preserved with NFPF funding and are now available to stream on the NFPF's website: THE OATH OF THE SWORD (1914) & THE MAID OF MCMILLAN (1916). Follow the thread for the links.
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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
NEWS: The Library of Congress has selected 25 films for the National Film Registry due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage. Highlights in this thread. 🧵 blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/01/... #NatFilmRegistry
blogs.loc.gov
The 2025 National Film Registry: “The Thing,” “Inception,” “Clueless” and More! | Timeless
The 2025 National Film Registry is out today, showcasing a group of 25 films spanning 118 years and including fan favorites such as “The Thing,” “Clueless,” “The Big Chill” and “The Incredibles.” The ...
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Mike Mashon @mikemashon.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Another reason to subscribe to Andrew’s @500songspodcast.bsky.social podcast: several episodes do an outstanding job explaining film and sound recording copyright both in Europe and the US.
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