... And the Pursuit of Happiness

Director: Louis Malle

1986 / 81min / Digital

Made at a moment when the demographic makeup of new immigrant arrivals to the United States had ceased for the first time to be overwhelmingly European, with ...And the Pursuit of Happiness, Malle, who’d only been a decade in the country himself, allowed his fellow transplants from an infinite variety of national and economic backgrounds to discuss their experiences in front of the camera. (Among their number: poet and future Nobel laureate Derek Walcott.) A warm, welcoming, and altogether convivial film, commissioned to celebrate the Statue of Liberty’s centennial, first seen by Cannes audiences in May and by HBO subscribers on Independence Day of 1986.

Distributor: Janus Films

Introduction by filmmaker Claire Duguet on Sunday, June 7th

Part of Louis Malle: Portraits of America