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SWEATSHOP CINDERELLA
A
film by Suzanne
Wasserman
2010,
27 minutes, Color, DVD
Order No. W101000
In
the forefront of early twentieth-century American literature about immigrant
women’s lives, Anzia Yezierska’s work includes short fiction, novels, and
essays, and her output spans 50 years. SWEATSHOP CINDERELLA, by award-winning
filmmaker/historian Suzanne Wasserman, vividly depicts this Jewish immigrant
writer’s amazing story.
Arriving from Poland around 1890, Yezierska’s family settled on the Lower East
Side, where she toiled in sweatshops and laundries, studying English at night.
Defying her parents, she pursued her education and became a teacher. Twice
married and divorced, she also had a daughter. At the urging of philosopher
John Dewey, with whom she fell in and out of love, Yezierska devoted herself
full-time to writing stories and novels in Yiddish-English dialect that won
awards and rave reviews. Soon Hollywood, which turned two of her works into
movies, beckoned her to write screenplays. When disenchantment with that world
set in, she returned to New York, writing and publishing her best work between
1922 and 1950.
Using archival stills and footage, silent film excerpts, letters, newspaper
clippings, and interviews, this is a major contribution to our understanding
and appreciation of Yezierska and her work.
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