About

Ellis Island — the immigration processing station where over 16 million people began new lives in America from 1892 to 1924 — was a transient realm where people’s pasts and futures hung in the balance. By the 1970s, however, the station had been abandoned and lay in ruins.

Originally made for French television, Georges Perec and Robert Bober’s two-part documentary grapples with capturing this ‘non-place’, and the stories of exile and hope that underpin the American dream. Part One, ‘Traces’, poetically blends footage shot on a tour of the island with historical photographs, along with lyrical narration by Perec. Part Two, ‘Memories’, comprises interviews by Perec with European and Jewish migrants who had passed through the island in their youth. This is a poignant reflection on memory, identity, and the pivotal moments of rupture that shape the trajectories of migrants and subsequent generations.

Ages 12+