Thoughts on News From Home

    On Criterion, I watched News from Home, a 1976 avant-garde documentary film directed by Chantal Akerman. The film consists of long takes of New York City life as Akerman reads in voiceover letters from her Belgian mother that she sent her between 1971-1973. 

    Akerman had moved to New York City at age 21 in 1971, where she did odd jobs, befriended filmmakers like Jonas Melkas and Babette Mangolte, and made film of her own. She returned to Belgium in 1973, and came back to NYC to shoot long takes of the city, then going through a financial crisis. As the camera holds on long takes of people in the subway, walking the streets, or people working the graveyard shifts late at night. 

    Over these images, Akerman in voiceover reads letters from her mother, which often have a passive aggressive tone to them, like "We know you're busy, but please find some time to write back to us," or bugging her about when will be the next time she'll come home to visit. Her mother updates her with mundane news, like when someone got married or had a baby or moved or whatnot.

    There's an interesting contrast between the mother's loving yet nagging correspondence, and the long shots of grimy city life, where people just walk on their way or stare ahead on the subway, save for the few who notice Akerman's camera and stare at her, like one old man on the subway. It brings up feeling lost and alienated in the city while the letters are about news close to home in more closer suburban life.

    I liked it more for seeing shots of 1970s New York City and relating to the feeling of being annoyed by a parent's hectoring for not being close to home, and I saw this more as an experimental art piece, not really as interested in sitting through it, as I let it play on streaming while getting up around my home and doing things, then sitting down to watch more of it. It runs slowly, with the long takes and redundant letters, and I felt I understood it without watching all 90 minutes of it, but I still liked it as an experimental art film.