News from Home

News from Home is a 1976^[1] 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.

News from Home
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Chantal Akerman
Written by	Chantal Akerman
Based on	Letters by Natalia Akerman
Produced by	Alain Dahan
Starring	Chantal Akerman
Cinematography	Babette Mangolte Jim Asbell
Edited by	Francine Sandberg
Production companies	Institut national de l'audiovisuel Paradise Films Unité Trois ZDF
Release dates	1976 (1976) 8 June 1977 (1977-06-08) (France)
Running time	88 minutes
Countries	France Belgium
Language	French

Production

In November 1971, at the age of 21, Belgian film director Chantal Akerman moved to New York City. There she took petty jobs, made films and befriended filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas and the cinematographer Babette Mangolte, who became one of her recurring collaborators. According to Akerman, she spent the period living "like a vagabond."^[2] Principal photography for News from Home took place in the summer of 1976, three years after Akerman had returned to Belgium and after she had achieved critical success with the 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Locations chosen for News from Home correspond to the areas where Akerman used to take walks, which include the Times Square subway station and a long shot driving up Tenth Avenue from 30th to 49th Streets in Hell's Kitchen. Other scenes were filmed in Tribeca and on the Staten Island Ferry. The sound was not recorded along with the images, but was added later.^[2]

Home media

News from Home was released on DVD in France through Carlotta Films on 18 April 2007.^[3] In 2010, The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD through its "Eclipse" series, as part of a set called Chantal Akerman in the Seventies. The set includes four feature films that Akerman directed in the 1970s as well as a number of short films.^[4] News from Home is included on the first disc of the set, called The New York Films.^[2]

On 23 January 2024, The Criterion Collection released News from Home, along with eight other works by Akerman, on Blu-ray as part of the box set Chantal Akerman Masterpieces (1968–1978).^[5]

Reception

News from Home has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews.^[6] In the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum called it "one of the best depictions of the alienation of exile that I know."^[7]