August 13
PEOPLE ON SUNDAY (Menschen am Sonntag)
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1929/30, 74 minutes
A summer day in Berlin, 1929: With unpretentious humor this astonishing first film by artists who were soon to become Berlin exiles deals with how the working class spends its precious leisure time. Berlin is as empty as a ghost town, everyone flees to the countryside, the train stations are packed. Erwin, a taxi driver, meets up with a young traveling salesman and his female companions, who are on their way to a nearby lake for a day of swimming, snoozing, and flirting, leaving the cabbie’s wife to sleep away her Sunday.
Billed as a ‘film without actors’, each of the on-screen participants effectively played themselves and returned to their day jobs once production had concluded. The film is the early collaboration of five young Berlin-based filmmakers – Robert and Curt Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Edgar G Ulmer, Eugen Schuefftan and Fred Zinneman – who would all go on to great international success. Produced with little financial assistance, it made film history as the avant garde precursor of poetic realism.
Music by NYKO MACA + PLAYGROUND
Nyko Maca + Playground’s music is a mixture of electro-samba, gypsy nu-jazz , breakbeat and full-on live improvisation. Made up of members Madz Abubakar (DJ), Rick Sanchez (Guitar), Alvin Cornista (Saxophone/Flute) and Nykó Macá (Vocals/Percussion), the group has released two E.P.’s: “Manifesto in the Raw” and “N.M.ation Outtakes”. Their first full-length album “NM+PG” was released in July 2009.
The 3rd International Silent Film Festival is co-organized by the Goethe-Institut, Instituto Cervantes, Japan Foundation and the Embassies of France and Italy. The festival is held in partnership with Shangri-la Plaza, YoCard, Embassy of Spain, Embassy of Japan, Alliance Francaise de Manille, Gourmet/Piasi and Official Media Partner Spot.PH.