American Passages

In the wake of Obama’s election, where does America stand on each citizen’s right to the “pursuit of happiness” enshrined in the Constitution? For the Viennese traveller Ruth Beckermann, the answer is not to be found in a succession of talking heads disserting on the subject, but in movement, in “passages”. Her attempt to make lightning and decisive encounters is a success. Partly thanks to her habit of travelling to film (to central Europe for her Paper Bridge, Israel for Towards Jérusalem, Egypt for A Fleeting Passage to the Orient…). Yet these passages are not just geographical, they are a time machine: the present of a black cabdriver, a young Iraq veteran, a rabbi or a gay couple causes History to unfold. Whether in the costumed revivals of local museums or the nostalgic memories of a former Vegas pimp, this history is being rewritten daily. Sometimes, the cuts are as brutal as the realities they portray: from the visit to a millionaire’s house to another at home with an evicted woman, the violence unquestionably stems from the side-by-side existence of these two extremes. The filmmaker’s endurance for crossing landscapes and social milieus gives an invigorating mobility to those she speaks with. Her own pursuit is as desperate and full of hope as the pursuit of happiness “guaranteed” to them by the Constitution.

Charlotte Garson