Péter Forgács: Hunky Blues - a filmscreening and discussion
Schedule
Wed, 11 Feb, 2026 at 03:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Nador u. 13., Budapest, Hungary, 1051 | Budapest, BU
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Hunky Blues (2009), directed by Péter Forgács, offers a poetic and reflective meditation on the `American Dream` and its meaning for Hungarian immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century. Using found footage and archival photographs, the film weaves together Hungarian and American histories between 1890 and 1921, illuminating the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians who migrated to the United States and tracing their arrival, adaptation, and gradual assimilation into American society. Looking at all this hundred years later, as the ‘American Dream’ as well as the model of the ‘melting pot’ seems to be irretrievably fading away, the film raises intriguing questions about push and full factors of migration, rural and urban poverty, processes of emancipation, and the role of civil society in social integration.Péter Forgács Hungarian media artist, filmmaker with international reputation, having works in the collections of the MoMA; Pompidou, or The Getty Museum, Los Angeles. And in several Museums, Archives and University collections. Since 1978 he has created several films and media installations. His installations have been exhibited for example New York MCNY, CJM San Francisco, the EYE, Film Museum, Amsterdam; BOZAR - Brussels, The Louvre, Paris. He received among many other major awards the prestigious Prix Europe (Berlin 1997) documentary film Free Fall. Received the Erasmus Prize of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation from Queen Beatrix (2007). The Col Tempo installation (2009) exhibited at Venice Biennale, Hungarian Pavilion, Film works like The Maelstrom and Hunky Blues were recently on view in The Louvre. El Perro Negro – Stories from the Spanish Civil War film awarded The Maysles Brothers Documentary Grand Prize at Denver International Film Festival and Feature Length Documentary Film Award at Tribeca International Film Festival, New York in 2005. Forgacs lives and works in Budapest.
Image: Emigrants on the ocean
RSVP Agnes Bendik at [email protected]
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Where is it happening?
Nador u. 13., Budapest, Hungary, 1051Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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