Buster Keaton silent classic goes high tech at Cinema Arts Centre

Silent film will go high tech next week as Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre adds a new entry to its ongoing lineup of virtual programming.

“Steamboat Bill, Jr.,” the classic 1928 silent feature featuring Buster Keaton, will play in the Cinema’s online screening room with livestreamed musical accompaniment by Ben Model, a professional silent film organist. The event takes place Thursday, June 18, at 7 p.m. Viewers are encouraged to pay what they can.

Directed by Charles Reisner, “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” casts Keaton as a puny college- id trying to help his father run a paddle steamer. It boasts what is arguably Keaton’s most famous stunt: standing perfectly still as the facade of a house topples onto him — but remaining unscathed thanks to one Keaton-sized window.

Model’s livestream is made possible by a combination of cutting-edge technology and can-do spirit. In a corner of the living room in his Manhattan apartment, Model plays an improvised score on his 1918 Baldwin Grand piano. To his right are two MacBook Pros. One is connected to a projector that plays the film on a wall to Model’s left. The other is connected to a microphone that picks up his piano and transmits it — along with yet another copy of the film — online. It’s also hooked up to a tripod-mounted iPhone equipped with telephoto lens and lavaliere mic that allows Model to speak directly to viewers. Complicated software helps keep it all running. (Model’s wife serves as cameraperson.)

“It’s a bizarre cockpit,” he says of his homemade broadcast studio. “It’s Dr. Frankenstein’s lab.”

Model says he’s been honing his technological skills since March, when he began hosting a weekly livestream called the Silent Comedy Watch Party (youtube.com/silentfilmmusic). Roughly 600 people regularly watch live, he says, and perhaps another 2,500 watch the uploaded recordings — proof that silent films can still entertain, even in the 21st Century.

“For me, you always have to drag people past the word ‘silent,’” he says. “But if it’s just a mouse click away, it’s a lot easier.”

For more information, go to cinemartscentre.org.