And the Pursuit of Happiness
(La Poursuite du bonheur)
US, 1986, 35mm, color, 90 min.
Commissioned as part of a series of documentaries celebrating the centenary of the Statue of Liberty, And the Pursuit of Happiness begins with Malle reflecting on his own status as a new American (he had been living in the U.S. for almost ten years and had an American wife and daughter). He seeks out other new immigrants to America and soon realizes how much the face of U.S. immigration has changed. The new arrivals are more likely to come from Asia, Africa or Latin America than from Europe. Traveling from Vietnamese communities in California to Indian-run motels in the Deep South, conversing with immigrants ranging from West Indian poet (and future Nobel prize winner) Derek Walcott to an Hispanic astronaut who became a citizen in 1977, Malle explores the meanings that the American dream has taken on for these newest Americans.
