Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy

Chantal Akerman’s newly restored portrait embraces Jewish New York, from trauma and resilience to generous helpings of Borscht Belt jokes.

Everyone from a diaspora has a story. On vacant Brooklyn lots overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge, a cross-section of Jewish New Yorkers tell migrant tales of joy and pain in mesmerising monologues, interspersed with corny Borscht Belt comedy routines filmed on a DIY deli set. Among those who capture the camera’s gaze are avant-garde theatre legends Judith Malina and George Bartenieff; Stephan Balint, who co-founded the Hungarian experimental troupe Squat Theatre; and his indie actor and violinist daughter Eszter.

The late Akerman (No Home Movie, MIFF 2016; The Meetings of Anna, MIFF 1979) was the Belgian daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors, though her European-set films handle Jewish identity in more circumspect ways. She considered her 1971 move to New York to be formative; there, in 1989, she shot this more outwardly Jewish film, which screened at that year’s Berlinale but has been rarely seen since. Appearing at MIFF as a new digital restoration supervised by DOP Luc Benhamou, Histoires d’Amérique feels open and effusive, even as it maintains the slow, constant gaze of Akerman’s signature style, and forms a counterpoint to News from Home, Akerman’s 1976 exploration of New York emigré alienation.

“Colorful, soulful stories of hope and despair are balanced by the garlicky comedy … Akerman highlights the forthright display of a distinctive Jewish-American diaspora culture.” – New Yorker