Magic lantern slides, early silent films, song slides, and music from wax cylinders over a century old will all be shown in Ainsworth this week. The 28th Annual Ainsworth Film Festival will be featured at the Ainsworth Opera House. The evening’s features will be narrated by local historian Michael Zahs. 

Zahs shares what the wax cylinder audio entails, “We also had 23 concert wax cylinders which are quite large, they look like drainage tile. I never wanted to touch a needle to something that is 130 or 140 years old, I didn’t know what would happen. And so I talked to them at the Library of Congress and they didn’t want to touch them with a needle. And they had no way of getting the sound off, but they said if you can wait we think eventually they’ll be able to take the sound off with a laser.”

Recently, they found a man in California who worked carefully to transfer the audio files from the wax cylinders to current audio files. 

Many of the films are from the collection of Frank and Indiana Brinton, who toured the country in the late 1800s. The couple provided entertainment for the public, many of whom were coming into opera houses to see their first ever moving picture.

The event provides attendees the option to view the films on Friday or Saturday beginning at 7 p.m. each night. The cost to attend is a freewill donation.