No. 90: Hungry Hearts
The first serious depiction of the Jewish immigrant experience
December 05, 2011
1922, dir. E. Mason Hopper. Goldwyn Pictures’ 1922 silent-movie adaptation of Anna Yezierska’s classic novel of the Lower East Side is a landmark document: a Jewish-immigrant-dominated film industry’s first serious depiction of the Jewish-immigrant experience. After languishing out of print for decades, it was lovingly restored in 2010 by the National Center for Jewish Film and is available now on DVD.
Jody Rosen is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.