H-Net Discussion Networks - Re: Query: exile and assimilation

View the h-film Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in h-film's January 2001 logs by: [date] [author] [thread]
View the Next Message in h-film's January 2001 logs by: [date] [author] [thread]
Visit the h-film home page.

From: Freda Freiberg <ffreiberg@one.net.au>
List Editor: Darryl Wiggers <darryl@internet.look.ca>
Editor's Subject: Re: Query: exile and assimilation
Author's Subject: Re: Query: exile and assimilation
Date Written: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 06:14:29 -0400
Date Posted: Wed, 16 Jan 2001 05:14:29 -0500

> " . . . can anyone point me towards early or classical films
> which might be relevent, either because of their Jewish
> content, or immigration themes"

The Australian Jewish Film Festival during November 2000 screened a
print of the Yiddish classic, A brivele der mamen (A Letter from
mother), made in Warsaw on the eve of WW2, which is worth your while
looking at. It is a moving maternal melodrama which details the
breakdown of the traditional family through the effects of
modernization, war and migration. Like many of the prewar Yiddish films,
it is cheaply made but full of folksy humour, pathos, and folk music as
well as all-stops-out melodrama. Not merely of nostalgic interest, it is
thematically quite interesting, especially when you consider it was made
for the immigrant ghetto market in America.

Humanities & Social
Sciences Online