News from home, Chantal Akerman

News from home, Chantal Akerman, Belgium, France, East Germany, 1976, 85’

In one of her best films, Chantal Akerman creates a beautiful composition between the correspondence her mother sends her from Brussels and her own images of everyday life in New York, captured through the singular eye of a European immigrant trying to adapt to life in the Big Apple. In the vein of Chris Marker's Sunless, this classic documentary film gets under our skin with its poignant epistolary dimension and its accurate portrayal of alienation in an urban environment.

A mother writes to her daughter who has gone to America. A little voice from Europe that is still trying to make itself heard. Letters from a mother, simple letters, love letters. A distant voice that we would like to hear close up. Little music of life that we still listen to but to which we can no longer respond from New York.

Session presented by Danele Sarriugarte (in Basque).