w/ music by Haverim, Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton
1 pm, Paramount
Director: Edward Sloman
Writer: Isadore Bernstein, Alfred A. Cohn, Charles E. Whittaker
Cinematographer: Max Dupont
Cast: Rudolph Schildkraut, Rosa Rosanova, Robert Gordon, George J. Lewis
Running Time: 93 min

The two sons of a poor Jewish pushcart peddler on New York’s Lower East Side are both causing their father grief. One, a selfish and ambitious student, wants to become a lawyer, and in doing so tries to hide his background from his friends. The other gets a job to help pay his brother’s college education and, to his father’s horror, becomes a prizefighter and plans to marry an Irish girl. As Morris and Sammy stray from traditions cherished by their parents, each generation learns to accept change in order to preserve the family as a source of love and respect.

Director Edward Sloman’s images of New York’s Lower East Side are so evocative that the viewer can almost hear the hustle and bustle of that thriving neighborhood during the 1920s. The film is a jewel in more ways than one: Universal Pictures used a 3-tiered brand system to sell its product until 1929: Red Feather (low budget offerings), Bluebird (mainstream) and Jewel (big budget prestige releases capable of drawing road show ticket prices). His People was released as one of the big-ticket shows of 1925 and was successful enough to secure Sloman the directorial post for two subsequent Jewish-themed features, His Country (1926) and We Americans (1927).

Newly restored version by the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University, the film received additional attention in 2004 when saxophonist/composer Paul Shapiro launched his new sextet score to accompany the film through a live performance at the Museum for Jewish Heritage. The Virginia Film Festival screening of this silent classic will be accompanied by local Jewish singing group Haverim, with music by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton.