Customer Reviews

Forgotten Ellis Island

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach ESL in fourth grade. I had a hard time finding a documentary about Ellis Island that did not overwhelm my students with complicated language. First, I showed them parts of "Remembering Ellis Island" but it was too difficult for them. I thought this video was much better for an audience their age. It was well-structured and had great imagery to support their understanding. "Forgotten Ellis Island" serves as a good introduction to immigration.

The Bottom Line:

This short documentary illuminates the "forgotten" side of Ellis Island--the medical wing which housed immigrants who arrived on the island sick or infirm; though Forgotten Ellis Island never strays from the standard PBS documentary style (talking head interviews, narration, old photos, etc.) it tells enough new information that it's a worthy watch for history buffs.

3/4

I'm writing this review from the perspective of someone looking for a resource to cover basic immigration with junior high students. This is based off the book Forgotten Ellis Island, covering most of the pictures in the book and following the basic outline of the book but for my junior high students, this is one way I can lighten the reading load without dumbing down content.

I can't comment on the detailed accuracy of the all information presented as I'm not immersed in Ellis Island history but overall, I thought it an excellent presentation of the history involving the beginnings of more controlled immigration into our country. It set the stage for the reasons for immigration control, gave the positive side of Ellis Island as far as state of the art medical attention, and covered the negative aspects of eugenics as applied at Ellis Island. I found the personal interviews fascinating and as it kept me awake at 1 am, I think it will work for junior high kids as well.

This work tries to separate itself by saying it's discussing health policy on Ellis Island. Well, many documentaries on the Island discuss health matters. The work, though informative, is not truly ground-breaking.
This work presents a mixed-bag. On the one hand, families who paid a lot to come to the US could be turned away due to illness of one or just some members. Still, many times these sick foreigners got cures they would not have received otherwise. Ellis Island's policies helped to establish the public health field and no field matures without bumps in the road. The work describes treatment for trachoma, a disease of which I have never heard, as being "medieval," but it also says that with no treatment a victim would likely go blind. One interviewee put it accurately: "Ellis Island was an island of hope, but also a land of despair."
I'm an African American and I'm aware of the sneakiness of voting laws. In the 1860s, the US Constitution was amended to forbid denying the vote based on race. Well, that doesn't mean that Blacks got to vote in actuality. Grandfather clauses pop up. Election workers demanded that people be able to read a Chinese-language newspaper before they could vote. Other voting areas required voters to pay fees they couldn't afford. This documentary talks about the ethnic oppression that took place on Ellis Island. Eugenics isn't brought up until midway into the program. (Bad) Science is used to exclude immigrants not from Northwestern Europe. "Scientific" tests were altered to ensure the results. Nebulous categories like "feeble-mindedness" were invented to exclude many. This stealth will upset many of the ancestors of these immigrants. Still, I wonder if the children of these immigrants are compassionate to new immigrants or now practice the things for which they would criticize late nativists.
Main points aside, the work visually focuses on the decaying buildings of Ellis Island. It made me think of a documentary called "Life after People." That work showed how Mother Nature eventually swallows up edifices that humans no longer use. Some viewers may be left with the idea that Ellis Island was filled with chipped paint and dust. However, that's what it became after decades of misuse.
You don't get to see Elliot Gould's hot hairy chest here, but it was nice hearing him as a narrator.