Chantal Akerman

Chantal Akerman

Born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1950, Chantal Akerman was a filmmaker whose work gave new meaning to the term "independent film." An Akerman film is an exercise in independence, creativity and art. Her viewers must give themselves over completely to the experience of her films and watch with open minds. Strong themes in her films include women at work and at home, and women's relationships to food, family, love, sex, romance, art and storytelling. Each Akerman film is a world to be explored on its own terms. Chantal Akerman died in Paris, France, in 2015, having forever changed the history of cinema.

"Comparable in force and originality to Godard or Fassbinder, Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation." —J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

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Chantal Akerman
  • Almayer's Folly

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Drama • With Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion • 2011 • 127 minutes

    Somewhere in Southeast Asia, in a little lost village on a wide and turbulent river, a European man clings to his pipe dreams out of love for his daughter. A story of passion, loss and mad...

  • Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 1996 • 64 minutes

    When asked to participate in the Cinema, of Our Time series, Chantal Akerman jokingly suggested herself as subject matter. She envisioned a film consisting solely of excerpts from her films, but when pressed by the producers to includ...

  • Chantal Akerman's Down There

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2006 • 78 minutes

    According to director Chantal Akerman, she never planned to make a film in Israel. She was convinced that neutrality does not exist and that her subjectivity would get in her way. She was sure she would only be able to reflect on 'the...

  • From The East

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2003 • 110 minutes

    FROM THE EAST retraces a journey from the end of summer to deepest winter, from East Germany, across Poland and the Baltics, to Moscow. It is a voyage Chantal Akerman wanted to make shortly after the collapse of the Soviet bloc "befo...

  • From The Other Side

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2002 • 99 minutes

    With her unmistakable style Chantal Akerman ("Arguably the most important European director of her generation."—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice) explores the border between the United States and Mexico.

    For years immigrants passed thr...

  • I Don't Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman

    Directed by Marianne Lambert • Documentary • 2015 • 67 minutes

    I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE: THE CINEMA OF CHANTAL AKERMAN explores some of the Belgian filmmaker's 40 plus films, and from Brussels to Tel Aviv, from Paris to New York, it charts the sites of her peregrinations.

    An experimental filmma...

  • One Day Pina Asked (Chantal Akerman)

    An encounter between two of the most remarkable women artists of the 20th century, ONE DAY PINA ASKED... is Chantal Akerman's look at the work of choreographer Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal, Germany-based dance company. "This film is more than a documentary on Pina Bausch," a narrator announces a...

  • No Home Movie

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2015 • 115 minutes

     The final film from groundbreaking auteur Chantal Akerman, NO HOME MOVIE is a portrait of her relationship with her mother, Natalia, a Holocaust survivor and familiar presence in many of her daughter's films.

    "At the center of Chan...

  • South

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 1999 • 70 minutes

    Inspired by her love of William Faulkner and James Baldwin, renowned director Chantal Akerman had planned to produce a meditation on the American South. However, just days before she was to begin filming, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered ...