“New Jersey Nights” is a film about lingering emotional memories. It is a narrative film which operates at the level of a dream. Three people converse without real conversation: the dialogues between a woman and two men are constructed from random statements and monologues which overlap, almost meet and then move apart. The images were chosen for their ability to evoke private memories which have universal meaning. These images represent moments that have become locked in memory and which act as keys to persons, places, and events. The optical effects suggest the relentless tearing of photographs, the images dissolving into themselves through the matte system of torn paper. Using home movies, archival footage, and contemporary material set against Yiddish and German songs recorded in the 1930s, this film has a special Judaic character.
