About

Brisbane Festival and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art present two classic adaptations of Snow White - the silent live-action film Snow White 1916 directed by J Searle Dawley and the animated feature it inspired, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 produced by Walt Disney.

These beautifully restored films re-imagine the famed German fairy tale which has captured the imagination of multiple generations since its publication in a collection of folk tales by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.

Walt Disney was inspired to create his timeless masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 after seeing the playful silent film as a boy, declaring years later "I thought it was the perfect story… It had the sympathetic dwarfs… the heavy… the prince and the girl. The romance… the perfect story."

Thought lost for many years, the silent Snow White was discovered in 1992 and lovingly restored by the George Eastman House film archive. A cheeky, whimsical production, Snow White— presented here with live musical accompaniment —captures the elements that audiences know and love: the beautiful princess, her wicked stepmother, the playful dwarfs and the handsome prince who spirits her away to Happily Ever After.

LIVE ACCOMPANIMENT

Acclaimed pianist Mauro Colombis brings the sounds of Snow White 1916 to life with his playful accompaniment.

Mauro Colombis is an Italian classically trained musician with international concert experience. He holds two masters in piano performance (from Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in 1998 and Venice Conservatory in 2005) and a Bachelor of Art, Music and Spectacle from the University of Bologna.

In the last decade Colombis has specialised in the live accompaniment of silent cinema, bringing together his own captivating compositions and improvisational methods. He regularly plays major film festivals around the world including the famed Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the leading international silent film festival in Italy, alongside festivals in Thailand and Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane).

In 2006 he was commissioned by the National Film and Sound Archive to create a piano accompaniment for the beloved Australian silent The Story of the Kelly Gang (Charles Tait, 1906), released on DVD in 2007.