The Modern Silent Shorts initiative was established in 2023 by Boykin Curry with the explicit goal of commissioning new works of silent film as a means of re-examining the medium’s original form through a contemporary lens.
In 2024, four directors were chosen as the inaugural filmmakers of Modern Silent Shorts. Their films were fully funded through the initiative and given a premiere at Mama Farm with live, original score.
In 2025, six more filmmakers were invited to participate in the initiative. Their shorts will premiere on July 24th.
The longterm goal of Modern Silent Shorts is to create a canon of silent films to play as a single program in public screenings across the country.
Lily Weisberg & Michael Bloom (co-founders)
Lily & Michael founded Modern Silent Shorts alongside Boykin Curry in 2023. They are the producers of the initiative and its screenings. Lily & Michael have also worked as producers across all 10 silent shorts.
Lily Weisberg is a director/producer with a B.A. in Humanities from Yale. Her most recent short film Working Summer premiered on Directors Notes and NoBudge, where it was named one of the Films of 2024.
Michael Bloom is a writer/producer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is in post-production as a producer on his first feature film, Living History, a documentary about the town of Virginia City.
