Fraternity-Testvériség, 2009 (87. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2009-07-01 / 3. szám
HUNKY BLUES by HRFA staff festival show-casing contemporary Hungarian visual, performing, and literary arts in New York and Washington, DC, throughout 2009. As part of this festival, Hunky Blues was screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC as well as the American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick, NJ. The film production was supported financially by Hungarian Cultural Center NY, TV2, MKB Bank,MKB Euroleasing, Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation, Hungarian Historic Film Foundation, Balassi Institute Hungary, Fulbright Foundation, NYU Center for Media, Culture and History, Center for Religion and Media, Ministry of Education and Culture Hungary. To organize a screening of Hunky Blues in your area, call the American Hungarian Foundation at 732-846-5777. arrived in the United States between 1890 and 1921. The film explores the fate of thousands of Hungarian men and women who arrived in the United States between 1890 and 1921. To tell their sagas, Forgács weaved this grand epic from early American cinema, found footage, photographs and interviews. The film reveals the difficult moments of arrival, integration and assimilation, which eventually fed the happiness of later generations and their fulfillment of the American dream. The film uses images researched across the United States including the American Hungarian Foundation’s Archives and Library in New Brunswick, NJ. But the most spectacular features of the documentary are the first-hand interviews recorded by Elemér Bakó of the Library of Congress in the 1960’s before this generation of pioneers was lost The internationally acclaimed director and recipient of the Erasmus Award in 2007, Péter Forgács created a documentary that is especially interesting to third and fourth generation Hungarian-Americans whose ancestors forever. The interviews and images are stitched together with iconic cinema clips from the period to help put these lives in a historical context. To learn more about the film, visit www.hunkyblues.com. Any Hungarian-American who had Arriving in the United States relatives who came to this country during that period will be riveted by the personal stories the film portrays. Unfortunately, the film is not available for individual sale, but the American Hungarian Foundation can loan copies of the film for screening locally. This would make a great activity for any Hungarian organization. Péter Forgács, born in 1950, is a media artist and independent filmmaker based in Budapest whose works have been exhibited world-wide. Since 1978, he has made more than thirty films. He is best known for his “Private Hungary” series of award-winning films based on home movies from the 1920’s and 1980’s which document ordinary lives that were soon to be ruptured by an extraordinary historical trauma that occurs off screen. Hunky Blues was created specially for EXTREMELY HUNGARY, a yearlong 17
