Trivia / Hester Street

• Amateur Cast: Mel Howard was the director at New York University's graduate film program, this film was his first and he had a small career afterwards.
• Based on a True Story: While the story is fictional, the creative team and the cast did speak to real immigrants to understand the characters.
• California Doubling: Instead of filming on the original Hester Street, the film was filmed at Morton Street in Greenwich Village.
• Creator Killer:
  • Adverted but Joan Micklin Silver despite the success still had trouble getting studio backing for her next project.
  • Also Carol Kane, in a interview joked that she found it difficult to get an audition after her Oscar Nomination.
• No Budget: The $400,000 was funded elsewhere due to the studios disbelief that Joan Micklin Silver as a director was a risk.
• The Producer Thinks of Everything: Raphael D. Silver (The Director's Husband) raised the money to produce the movie and when the film failed to gain a distributor, he did it as well it resulted in the film going to Cannes, where it was placed on the festival route, before finally gaining the Theatrical Release and becoming the hit it become.
• Slice of Life: The film is in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, due to it faithful presentation of Immigrate Life in the turn of the century New York.
• Sole Survivor: Real Life example: Out of the lead cast members Carol Kane is the last actor alive the other major players are now dead:
  • Dorrie Kavanaugh in 1983 of Cancer.
  • Steven Keats Committed Suicide in 1994.
  • Mel Howard in 1996.
  • Doris Roberts in 2016 in her sleep.