Remembering Ellis Island: Everyman's Monument

Telly Savalas hosts this moving tribute to Ellis Island, the portal to the New World for some 12 million immigrants during the first half of this century. Using a combination of newsreel footage, old still photographs, excerpts from letters, and interviews with museum guides (Ellis Island became a museum in 1990), Remembering Ellis Island captures both the history and the atmosphere of the place that has come to symbolize "freedom." Some of the common myths are exploded: although Ellis Island has a reputation for being the place where the door to a new life was slammed in the face of many, only one out of every ten immigrants was detained, and only about 2% were deported. Another myth involves the notion that everyone had to pass through Ellis Island to gain entrance into America when, in fact, only steerage passengers on the steamers were required to do so. Which is not to say that Ellis Island didn't have more than its fair share of injustice and tragedy. Parents were separated from their children, and the island was rife with bribery and fraud during its early years. Visually interesting, and solidly narrated by Savalas, Remembering Ellis Island is one of the best documentaries on the subject to appear in recent years. Mixing the past with the present, the filmmakers have created a real sense of feeling about the place. For example, when a museum guide points to the three sets of stairs that took immigrants to 1) Manhattan, 2) to another section for further questioning, or 3) back to their homelands, one cannot help but feel a lump in the throat for the triumph, fear, and utter depression those three sets of stairs must have inspired in the people who faced them. Highly recommended. (Available from: Panorama International Productions, 10700 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601.)