Hester Street - Julia Wagner (BFI Film Classics)

'Hester Street' by Julia Wagner (BFI Film Classics 112-page paperback)

Joan Micklin Silver's groundbreaking debut feature film vividly portrays the immigrant experience through the eyes of a young Orthodox Jewish woman who arrives in New York City from Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century.

Julia Wagner examines how despite the prejudice Micklin Silver faced, a low-budget, black-and-white, independent production with Yiddish dialogue became an unexpected box office hit.