Twin Cities-based music ensemble The Poor Nobodys will perform a live original score
accompanying the screening of the silent Swedish film A Man There Was. Based on Henrik
Ibsen’s epic poem and directed by Victor Sjöström, A Man There Was (Terje Vigen) was
released in 1917 when many Scandinavian immigrants were arriving in Minnesota. The film tells
the story of a Norwegian sailor who in 1814 takes on a British blockade to find food for his
family. Considered to be one of the crowning achievements in Swedish silent film, A Man There
Was cemented Sjöström’s reputation as a director (and actor) of the highest caliber. This rare
screening is part of a statewide tour by the Poor Nobodys in support of this classic film.
About the Artists
The Poor Nobodys have been composing and performing since 2008. They’ve written many
original scores for both classic and new films, including Night of the Living Dead, Douglas
Fairbanks’s The Black Pirate, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger. They have collaborated with
venues such as the Trylon Microcinema, the Southern Theater, and the Cedar Cultural Center in
Minneapolis; the Minnesota History Theater in St. Paul; the Ark Center for the Arts in Viroqua,
Wisconsin; and many other venues in the Midwest and beyond. In 2014, a European tour gave
the group the opportunity to perform in cafés and theaters in Germany, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, and France.