News from Home

MOVIE #1,741 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 06.20.24 ALBERT & AKERMAN: AN AUTEURIST STUDY IN CONTRAST + CONTINUUM The language divide is interesting here because it falls on you to read text instead of taking in the scenery which is a purposeful juxtaposition: News from Home is an 80-minute avant-garde documentary consisting of long takes of locations in the Big Apple, Baby! set to Akerman's voice-over as she reads letters that her mother sent her between 1971 and 1973 when she lived in the city. I do wonder if the experience is different for a native speaker who can let the two elements merge together more naturally. Is this a normal complaint or is my mid-2020s brain poisoned by constant distractions?

The letter content is not unusual or really that interesting, more or less pleas for her to write back more often, questioning whether or not she received a package or money, simple messages of longing. Chantal’s Mom is very concerned about her getting this package of summer clothes. This is a stark reminder that we are always a child, no matter how old. These messages are loaded with true and beautiful sentiments of longing, the kind I suspect only a mother really knows.

Like with Hotel Monterey, her camera does pan occasionally and towards the end is taking shots from inside a moving car. At one point, a train comes loudly rushing in and the subtitles cut out when the audio of the narration is unintelligible I guess. I like experiments and I liked this.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,740 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,742 ⫸

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News from Home is a 1976 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 that her mother sent her between 1971 and 1973 when Akerman lived in the city. It was released on June 9, 1977.