News from Home

News from Home
Directed by Chantal Akerman
Produced by Alain Dahan
Written by Chantal Akerman
Starring Chantal Akerman
Cinematography Babette Mangolte
Jim Asbell
Edited by Francine Sandberg
Release dates
  • 8 June 1977 (1977-06-08) (France)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country France
Belgium
Language French

News from Home is a 1977 avant-garde documentary film directed by Chantal Akerman. The film consists of long takes of locations in New York City, set to Akerman's voice-over as she reads letters her mother sent her between 1971 and 1973, when the director lived in the city.

Production

In November 1971, at the age of 21, the Belgian film director Chantal Akerman moved to New York City. There she took petty jobs, made films and befriended filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas and the cinematographer Babette Mangolte, who would become one of her recurring collaborators. According to Akerman, she spent the period living "like a vagabond."[1] Principal photography for News from Home took place in the summer of 1976, three years after the director moved back to Belgium and after she achieved critical success with the 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Locations chosen for News from Home correspond to the areas where Akerman used to take walks, which include the Times Square subway station and Hell's Kitchen. None of the sound was recorded synchronised with the images.[1]

Release

The film was released on DVD in France through Carlotta Films on 18 April 2007.[2] The Criterion Collection released it through their Eclipse series in 2010, as part of a set called Chantal Akerman in the Seventies. The set included four feature films Akerman directed in the 1970s as well as a number of short films.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Anderson, Melissa (2010-01-19). "Her Brilliant Decade". Moving Image Source. Museum of the Moving Image. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
  2. ↑ "News from home - film de Chantal Akerman". Evene (in French). Figaromedias. Retrieved 2010-12-07.
  3. ↑ Kehr, Dave (2010-01-31). "The Evolving Vision of a Belgian Auteur". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-06.


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