Survival in New York

Duration: 90

Year Published: 1989

Creator: R. von Praunheim

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: New York City's multifarious realities are refracted through the experiences of three German women who have made the metropolis their home. Immigrating to New York to escape German provincialism, Ulli, Claudia and Anna reveal both their fascination with the city's divergent lifestyles and artistic milieu and trepidation regarding its more repellent aspects. To support herself, Anna worked as a stripper before becoming a psychotherapist in a parochial school. Married to a fashion designer whom she later divorced, Anna has found happiness with a lawyer-turned-go-go club owner. When her sculptor/lover returned to Germany after his grant ran out, Claudia chose to remain and took a number of jobs including assistant to Jewish writer Hans Sahl. New York's vibrant gay scene enabled her coming out as a lesbian. The dimninutive Ulli, inseparable from her equally diminutive dog, relates a sojourn in Harlem with her Caribbean boyfriend and is seen with her current lover, a troubled Vietnam veteran. For these three emigres, the initial euphoria of living in New York City has faded as they confront immigration problems, high rents and violent crime.