TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
O Little Town of East New York
1992
Shelley Hirsch
An autobiographical docu-musical about growing up in East New York. The artist describes, creates and inhabits remembered environments, situations and persons. Musical fragments, characterizations, accents, and sound images evoke the ethnically diverse neighborhood from the 1960s to the present: Hirsch's Russian schoolmate's living room; the home of her own working class Jewish family; synagogue; high school; rallies against the Vietnam War; drugs. O Little Town of East New York was the winner of the prestigious 1993 Prix Futura Berlin, in the Ake Blomstrom competition for new, promising documentary talent. Music co-composed and performed with David Weinstein. Commissioned by New American Radio.