Films of Chantal Akerman to Be Shown Oct. 11

Filmmaker Chantal Akerman, left, and a still from her film “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commence, 1080 Bruxelles”

A day-long screening Sunday, Oct. 11, will celebrate the work of pioneer feminist and experimental filmmaker Chantal Akerman. The screenings will take from 2-10 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium in the Shaffer Art Building.

Akerman unexpectedly passed away Oct. 4 at the age of 65. During her lifetime, Akerman made over 40 films defining the vanguard of experimental cinema. Her work has been likened to influential filmmakers Jean Luc Godard and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and called “arguably the most important European director of her generation.” Her life’s work is inspiration to countless filmmakers and artists. Her film “No Home Movie,” is currently screening at the New York Film Festival.

All films are free and open to the public. Paid Parking is available in Booth Parking Garage, located near the intersection of Comstock and Waverly avenues.

Shemin Auditorium and Shaffer Art Building do not require use of stairs for entry; however, they do include a series of doors. Several—but not all—of these doors can be opened automatically. Shemin Auditorium offers stadium-style seating which requires the use of stairs, with ample seating in front that does not require use of stairs. Large, accessible (gendered) bathrooms are located on the first floor of the building. Contact the organizers if you anticipate needing additional accommodations or experience difficulty entering the building.

The event is organized by Jessica Posner and Cooper Battersby. For more information, contact Posner atjlposner@syr.edu or Battersby at tbatters@syr.edu.

Schedule (subject to change):

2 p.m.
“Je Tu Il Elle” 
[1hr 26min, 1976]
In her provocative first feature, Akerman stars as an aimless young woman who leaves self-imposed isolation to embark on a road trip that leads to lonely love affairs with a male truck driver and a former girlfriend.

4 p.m.
“From the East”
[1hr 50 min, 1993]
“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 Akerman wanted to make shortly after the collapse of the Soviet bloc “before it was too late,” reconstructing her impressions in the manner of a documentary on the border of fiction. By filming “everything that touched me,” Akerman sifts through and fixes upon sounds and images as she follows the thread of this subjective crossing. Without dialogue or commentary, “From the East” is a cinematographic elegy.

6:30 p.m.
“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commence, 1080 Bruxelles” 
[3hr 21min, 1975]
A singular work in film history, Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow—whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, “Jeanne Dielman” is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.