The vitals:
Monday, 4/7
7:00 ~ Doors
7:30 ~ NEWS FROM HOME

In 1971, Legendary filmmaker Chantal Akerman, best known for directing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, the film that currently sits atop Sight & Sounds list of the greatest films of all time, moved from her home in Belgium to New York City. At only 21, Akerman cited the year she spent in New York as one of the most formative of her life, introducing her to the works of experimental filmmakers like Michael Snow, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol which would go on to inform and influence her storied career. However, that year was also lonely and difficult, both for her, and for her mother, a Polish Holocaust survivor, learning to navigate the world without her daughter.

Akerman’s 1976 documentary News From Home pairs stunning, trancelike long takes of New York City as it existed in the 70s with Akerman’s narration of the letters her mother wrote to her from Belgium over that time period. Immensely affecting, the film tells a poignant and sometimes heartbreaking story of exile, urban alienation and intra family connection. In its construction Akerman manages to be both incredibly vulnerable and distant, a ghost in her own story, never even visually appearing in the gorgeous time capsule of New York City she has created. An avante-garde documentary not quite like any other, News From Home will make you want to call your mom and tell her you love her.

-Colin Page

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