News From Home

Having read about Chantal Akerman's lauded influence on film, I was intrigued and took my first dose of her work watching News From Home. A great place for me to start, since it combines three of my favourite things: art, film and New York City! Chantal's rightfully praised work captured me instantly. News From Home isn't extravagant, or grandiose, but instead segments of a static camera capturing 1970's daily life, morning to evening, through varying parts of Manhattan, above and below ground. It is accompanied by a series of narrated letters Chantal's mother wrote her during her time living and working in New York. The letters express Chantal's mother's worry for her daughter, duties at home, family updates and general gossip.

It is a gem of a view of the city, time capsuled, where you can sense the air and atmosphere of the time, people bustling through on foot and public transport. The dullness from lack of overall colour, thanks to a city of concrete and commercial buildings scattered with moving aluminum, might have made for a bleak viewing experience, but for the eye popping hues from fashion items, graffiti, iconic yellow taxis and light fixtures.

As Chantal's mother sends us on our way with her final letter, we are led further and further out from the island on a ferry to watch the skyline fade away in the distance.

I took a few screen shots to paint where the colours particularly stood out to me. The first is of a subway in motion (a notable scene for colour, as between carts arriving, passengers await boarding on the platform in their various attire). The second is of a market stall (again underground in the subway system), with an array of brightly arranged flowers. The third is predominantly dark, from a period at night, but specks of neon lights and whizzing taxis illuminate through.