The Bellingham Symphony Orchestra and Pickford Film Center team up again for a free event combining outdoor cinema with live music in downtown Bellingham, WA. The family-friendly event will also include a raffle and prizes, as well as food and drink options for purchase.

The films are a selection of silent shorts curated by Spencer Sundell of The Sprocket Society, providing a sampler of the entertaining variety to be found in silent movies: hilarious comedy, western drama, amazing special effects and, of course, a cartoon.

The films will be accompanied live by musicians from the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra, with new scores composed especially for this program by local composers. (Learn more below.)

Bring your folding chair and join us for a beautiful sunset followed by six fun films accompanied by live music!

The film program will include:

• The Koko the Clown cartoon Fishing (1921) by the legendary Fleischer brothers
• Laurel and Hardy in Big Business (1929), one of the greatest comedies of all time
• William S. Hart's western drama Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)
• French political satire with The Nursemaids' Strike (La grève des nourrices, 1907)
• Stop motion animation by Ladislas Starevich in The Frogs Who Wanted a King (Les Grenouilles qui demandent un Roi, 1922)
• Actuality films of the Gold Rush-era Seattle waterfront shot in 1897!

All movies will be shown digitally.

Sunset Flicks is made possible by a grant from the City of Bellingham to activate and beautify downtown spaces. Learn more.

About the music

All of the movies in the program will be accompanied live by musicians from the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. They will be performing new scores by:

• Andrea Rackl, principal pianist for the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra, will provide improvised solo accompaniment for Fishing, Scenes from Gold Rush Seattle, and The Nursemaids' Strike (La grève des nourrices). Rackl is also a longtime music teacher and an active composer, arranger, and improvisor.
• Kevin Woods is composing new chamber orchestra scores for Big Business and The Frogs Who Wanted a King (Les Grenouilles qui demandent un Roi). He also contributed two chamber scores for the first Sunset Flicks program in 2025. Woods is Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University (WWU). As a jazz trumpeter he leads several ensembles, performs regularly as a soloist and a sideman, has eight recordings as a band leader, and has been featured in both Downbeat and Jazziz magazines.
• Julia Zuzanna Sokolowska is composing a new chamber orchestra score for Bad Buck of Santa Ynez. A composer, arranger, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist, Sokolowska has worked across film, television, and media in both the US and internationally. Her many credits include Netflix’s Filthy Rich, The Book of Life, Empire, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, League of Legends for Riot Games, as well as large-scale live performances at the Hollywood Bowl and on international tours.

About the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra

The Bellingham Symphony Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the historic Mount Baker Theatre. It performs seven concerts per season in addition to a variety of community and youth engagement programs across the calendar year. Details about the BSO and ticketing information for the current season are available at bellinghamsymphony.org.

About Pickford Film Center

Pickford Film Center, a nonprofit organization, provides a forum and resource for independent cinema, strengthening community through education, dialogue and the celebration of film. Since its founding in 1998, it has been the only independent cinema, operating 365 days a year, between Seattle and Vancouver B.C. For more information and what’s playing, go to pickfordfilmcenter.org.