Jun 28, 2010
The Summer School Project
“People on Sunday” (“Menschen am Sonntag, Germany 1930) was one of the most innovative films of the late Weimar Republic, created by five young and then unknown German-American filmmakers. Only three years, however, after Billy Wilder, Robert and Curt Siodmak, Fred Zinnemann and Edgar Ulmer finished this movie that made their name, they all had to flee Berlin and soon became famous again in Hollywood.
Our joint Summer Workshop People on Sunday – or rather People on Sunday 2010 – will take its cue from this masterpiece by five German-American filmmakers and will be centered around practical work: the making of short documentary or semi-documentary portrayals of everyday life in a contemporary city: Cologne.
The Summer School starts on June 21 with five days of academic instruction. In seminars, lectures and workshops, taught by Prof. Chris Horak, PhD (UCLA), Prof. Lisa Gotto, PhD (ifs) and Prof. Freyermuth, PhD (ifs), the participants will analyze the 1930 movie “People on Sunday”, learn about its history, its influence on German and American film making and about the life and works of its makers.
During this first week, the participating young film makers will also form mixed German-American teams and start to develop ideas for documentary or semi-documentary shorts which they will produce in the following five weeks.
Sponsored by the state chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, the project was developed by Prof. Gundolf S. Freyermuth of the ifs. He proposed the project to Prof. Barbara Boyle of the UCLA Film School in August 2009. The German-American cooperation was then signed in Los Angeles – in the presence of Andreas Krautscheid [Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia] and Prof. Teri Schwartz [Dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television] – by Simone Stewens [Chief Executive Director of the ifs] and Prof. Barbara Boyle [Chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media] in October of 2009.
This website will provide continuing information about our joint Summer School.
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