The Jest

People on Sunday(de)

A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.

The Birth of a Nation(en)

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans(en)

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

Carne(fr)

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

Battleship Potemkin(ru)

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.

Nosferatu(de)

The mysterious Count Orlok summons a happily married real estate agent to his castle, located up in the Transylvanian mountains, to finalise a terrifying deal.

Nanook of the North(en)

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

October (Ten Days that Shook the World)(ru)

Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.

The Blacksmith of the Crucifix(hr)

Lost Croatian silent film.

Broken Barriers(yi)

This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.

The Nest(en)

A doctor must remove a parasite infestation from within a patient's breast.

Bake Jizo(ja)

One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost.

Carmen(it)

The Kid(en)

A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.

Slave of Her Senses(pl)

Pola is a beautiful but poor girl, a locksmith's daughter. Unexpectedly, she's successful as a stage dancer. After her success, she breaks with her fiancé and becomes the lover of a rich admirer. However, the fiancé does not accept her departure.

The Poppy Girl's Husband(en)

A silent romantic love triangle crime melodrama about a man who gets out of prison after ten years and discovers that his wife has divorced him and married the man who sent him to prison. Worse yet, she fears he will want to exact revenge, so she sets up her new husband to frame her first husband, so he will be sent back to prison!

The Primal Law(en)

silent cowboy western starring Dustin Farnum as a rancher whose partner is killed by rustlers. He takes in his partner's young son, and begins to sell his ranch, but the boy finds oil on the land.

La Cerca(en)

Edward James Olmos narrates this multi-fest winner about an immigrant who recalls a vivid and momentous memory where he discovered his boundaries.

It's Alright(pt)

Camila broke up with her boyfriend recently. She's been going out and spending time with her girlfriends and her dog.

Salar(es)

The intersecting lives of two otherwise unrelated people in a rural Bolivian village adjacent to the Uyani salt flats are presented. The first is Carlos, a poor salt miner. Unlike his colleagues, he is unwilling to take the one time compensation package from an American conglomerate who wants to purchase the mining rights. Carlos would rather get paid for doing actual work than risk living off a one time payment without a guarantee of any other work in the area. Carlos being the one holdout irks his fellow miners, who cannot get their compensation until Carlos also agrees to the terms. Carlos views all gringos in a bad light because of this situation. The second is Marc, an American doctor who has worked in various third world countries providing aide where needed. Marc is completing his term here. Carlos and Marc have a turbulent few meetings based on Carlos' feelings toward gringos and his want for a simple stable life.