TSM Ellis Island
From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Many fled to America to escape religious persecution, famine, and disease. For many people America was the land of new opportunites and a fresh start at life. As the boats sailed into the harbor many of the immigrants saw the Statue of Liberty signaling that they are just one step closer to the new life and opportunites ahead in New York. So many people today can trace back their family lineage to someone who has passed through Ellis Island. During my personal visit I had a deep connection to the history and the stories of the immigrants. As a result this lead to a sense of longing to research more about the island and the stories of those who had passed through the place known as the isle of hopes and the isle of tears. This piece is a personal and artistic reflection the immigration experience of Ellis Island. The piece is based off images and sounds that are mentioned through oral and written stories from the passengers.
Raymond Bieber: I like the way that you had layered the written stories of the immigrants with the footage of them in the background. I found your decision to only use archive footage to be an interesting one. The different squares of footage in the same frame shows that there were multiple stories to be told. It would have been nice if you could have found footage of people boarding the ships in Europe to show the beginning of the journey toward Ellis Island as well as the struggle of the amount of time on the ships. Overall this does a great job of highlighting the perspectives of the immigrants that arrived on Ellis Island.
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