An unprecedented restoration project, involving an international collaboration of film archives.

a/perture presents a very special program to celebrate Silent Movie Day of five shorts from 1927: Duck Soup, Battle of the Century, Call of the Cuckoo, Sugar Daddies and The Second 100 Years.

Experience the emerging partnership of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in this collection of 15 newly restored films, starring what is now widely considered the greatest comedy team in film history.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy first appeared on film together in 1921. The two would formally team up in 1927 and found success by following a simple comic formula that displayed the hilariously ambitious and anarchic qualities of their joint personality.

Very few original negatives of the silent films of Laurel & Hardy survive. It took three years to gather the surviving prints of these shorts, compare them shot by shot and give them the best digital restoration possible. Today, these invisible films look as young as they did 95 years ago. 

This project was co-curated by some of the world’s preeminent Laurel & Hardy historians, including Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange, and John Bengtson.

Silent Movie Day is an annual celebration of silent movies that anyone can take part in. We believe that silent film is a vital, beautiful, and often overlooked part of film history. Our goal is to advocate for its presentation and preservation.