Join us this First Friday in June for an evening celebrating the region's moviemaking history!

The Cayuga Museum is part of the Finger Lakes Film Trail, a coalition of historic film sites, and through 2025 we are featuring an exhibit in partnership with our friends at the Wharton Studio Museum in Ithaca. The Wharton Studio Museum is preserving  and celebrating the legacy of one of the most influential studios during the Silent Era. Join us Friday, June 6, to explore the history of the Wharton Studio in the exhibit on display on the Cayuga Museum’s second floor.

The evening will include a brief talk by Wharton Studio Museum Co-Founder & Executive Director, Diana Riesman, at 6 PM and a tour of the Case Research Laboratory beginning at 6:30 PM.

First Friday will be held on Friday, June 6 from 5 – 7:30 PM. Admission to the Museum is free during this time. Parking is available in the lot behind the Museum off of Orchard Ave, and in the Schweinfurth Art Center lot next door. Street parking is available on Washington & Genesee St.

ITINERARY

5:00 PM – Exhibits Open to Explore
6:00 – 6:30 PM – Diana Riesman Talk
6:30 – 7:00 PM – Case Research Laboratory Tour
7:30 PM – First Friday Ends

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About the Speaker

Diana Riesman manages day-to-day operations of Wharton Studio Museum, overseeing the organization’s programming, exhibits and events, as well as fundraising and community outreach. She is leading the effort to develop the historic Wharton Studio building in partnership with Friends of Stewart Park.

A former production assistant for ABC Afterschool Specials, and assistant to the late director Frank Perry (The Swimmer, David and Lisa) in the early 80s in NYC, Riesman moved to Los Angeles in 1985, working at Writers & Artists Agency, Tri-Star Pictures, and Film and General Productions before venturing out on her own to write and produce. Riesman most recently served as co-producer of award-winning radio programs To The Point, Which Way, LA?, Good Food, and Hollywood Wrap for NPR affiliate KCRW in Santa Monica.

Riesman is a member of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) and its upstate counterpart UPWIFT. In the summer of 2023, she joined the Board of Trustees of WSKG public tv and radio.

Join Wharton Studio Museum and Friends of Stewart Park for our 9th annual Party for the Park fundraiser! 

We’re celebrating our current Roaring 20s by bringing the party back to the Roaring 1920s when silent movies were all the cat’s meow, jazz was playing in secret clubs downtown, and Ithacans were gathering in their new public lakeside park. 

Come as you are, or if you’d like, wear a sparkly headband, flapper dress, or Great Gatsby inspired suit! We just want you there! 

This year’s party will include live jazz, a raffle, and local wine, beer and cider. Van Nobel Farm will cater a full farm-to-table meal including appetizer and dessert.

Thank you to this year’s Collaborating Sponsors Bousquet Holstein PLLC, City Harbor, and Iron Design.

Quiet on the Set! Film Festival

brought to you by Wharton Studio Museum

2024 Festival Details

Registration: REGISTER HERE
DEADLINE: Monday, April 22
Registration is not a commitment to submit but does help us plan the screening and awards event and contact entrants with news

Submission: SUBMIT HERE
DEADLINE: Monday, May 20
Rules & Regulations are listed on the submission website

Screening & Awards Ceremony
Saturday, June 8 @ 2 PM, Cinemapolis, 120 East Green St., Ithaca NY
Join us for a screening of the films, followed by an awards ceremony for the top three entries

Thank you to our Producing Partner Story House Ithaca

About

Inspired by our region’s role in early moviemaking, Quiet on the Set! is a terrific opportunity for local youth to showcase their creativity by making short silent films. Films are reviewed by a jury of local educators and arts professionals.

Registration required — No filmmaking experience necessary

• Open to youth (ages 11-18) from anywhere in the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, and Central NY regions
• Submissions may be made by an individual or group
• Runtime must be 1-5 minutes in length
• Films must be silent:
     - NO spoken dialogue; intertitles/title cards can be used
     - Music soundtrack & instrumental sound effects must be original or public domain
• Films must include at least one title card
• Films must include credits
• Films must be in black & white; use of hue is accepted
• Films can include animation
• NO explicit content 

Prizes are awarded to the top three entries, which are revealed each year at a Screening & Awards Ceremony at local independent movie theatre Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca.

Thank you to Presenting Sponsor Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College for their continued support (2017 - Present) 

History

WSM is thrilled to continue our short silent film festival for youth — 2024 marks our 6th year! 

The festival began in 2017 with three submitted films and was co-hosted by Cinemapolis. While we skipped 2018, the fest came back strong in 2019 with sixteen submitted films and sponsorship support from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College which also hosted the screening and awards ceremony in the Park Auditorium on IC’s campus. In 2020, due to the pandemic, we had to pivot and produce the festival as a virtual event, and we were so grateful to everyone who took part during such a complicated time. 

In 2021 WSM & Ithaca High School collaborated on the virtual soft premiere of Quiet on the Set! exclusively with Ithaca High School Media Arts students. Our filmmakers were approaching the end of an unprecedented school year, one in which their lives differed distinctly from any expectations they might have had, and they had a lot to express. Some of the films were funny, or fantastical, some dealt directly with issues of mental health and boredom or monotony, all of them were wonderful, and we felt honored to watch. 2022 found us back in-person at Cinemapolis with a wonderful slate of submissions. We took a break in 2023 and are back in 2024 with producing partner Story House Ithaca.

Throughout the years, our goals for the film festival have remained the same: to introduce silent filmmaking as a form of visual storytelling to young people, and to encourage and celebrate their ideas and imagination. Quiet on the Set! is an opportunity for local youth to create something and then have the fun of screening and celebrating their work with audience comprised of family, friends, and jury members, and perhaps win a prize in the process!

We hope to continue the festival and be able to add to this History section!

View films from past festivals: Youtube

Contact

Email: quietontheset@whartonstudiomuseum.org