Američanke – zgodbe slovenskih izseljenk / 100% Slovenian
It
all began five years ago with a note sent to the Slovenian women’s union of America: ˝My name is Mirjam M. Hladnik and I
am a researcher at the Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies in Ljubljana. I am currently
living in New York with my family and am
working on a research project entitled Slovenian
Women and their descendants in the United States, and their role in
preserving cultural heritage. The
main topic of the study has been the oral history of ethnic Slovene women in
the U.S.A., and concerns their roles, efforts and
achievements in preserving Slovenian cultural heritage within the family,
community, unions and organizations, as well as professionally as teachers,
journalists, activists or artists… I am interested in the
life stories of immigrants, of the first, second and third generations of women
who came to live in the States, namely woman of any age, background and status. The main method used in
documenting these narratives is not an interview but more a conversation, the
stories of women who are willing to talk and to share their experiences and
views about the cultural heritage with me.˝ With the help and enthusiasm of more then sixty women from SWUA and
other American-Slovenian organizations, I collected an amazing number of
personal stories, intimate memories and reminiscences, as well as unforgettable
emotions from migrants and their descendants.
On the occasion of the
screening of her first feature film in New
York, I talked to the Slovenian director Hanna A. W. Slak.
100% Slovenian is a documentary that
relates the story of three generations of women who immigrated to the United States
during the 20th century. It's a story of identities lost and found.
What makes a woman who
doesn't speak Slovene, who has never visited Slovenia and has an English
sounding name claim she's just as 100% Slovenian as the girl who flew in two
years previously? The director Hanna A.
W. Slak and the researcher/screenwriter Mirjam M. Hladnik interview women across the States. They tell
stories of identities constructed from memories of grandmothers’s voices and
recipes for exotic foods such as potica
and kislo zelje; of experiences of
shame and pride at elementary school when even the answer to ‘’Where are you from?’’
was confused and confusing; of nostalgia for the old country, and of love for
the new one. Mostly of love. The film was released in October 2005 under the
Slovene title Američanke. It was later aired by state television in Slovenia and also travelled to several festivals
around Europe and the United
States.
Mirjam M.
Hladnik
Organisation:
City of Women
In
collaboration with: Kinodvor
With
the support of: Istituto Italiano di Cultura
