City, Essay, Film: News from Home

City, Essay, Film is a series of events hosted by UCL Urban Laboratory to examine the concept and practice of the ‘urban essay film’. Urban Lab Films will host a series of screenings with Bertha DocHouse throughout June and July, curated by David Anderson and Jordan Rowe.

This screening takes us through a meditation on urban alienation and personal and familial disconnection, in Chantal Akerman’s News from Home, with an introduction and screening notes by Moselle Kleiner (Courtauld Institute of Art).

News from Home (dir. Chantal Akerman, 1977, 88 mins)

Exploring the relationship between mother and daughter, Akerman recites messages sent received from her mother during a two-year sojourn in New York as images of the city unfurl in dry but mesmeric montage. A deeply moving film – an archive of memories not only personal, but architectural.

Part of the City, Essay, Film series.

• Read the screening notes (pdf)
• Download the poster (pdf)
• Download the booklet (pdf)

Image: Still from News from Home. Coutesy of Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief - Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique

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