Filmmaker Chantal Akerman will introduce her film D'Est (From the East) on March 4 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Hall Theatre.
Cornell Cinema will present a series of recent and classic films by ground-breaking Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman in March, along with a visit to Cornell by the director March 4. The theme of the series is "From the Outside Looking In: The Films of Chantal Akerman" and began Feb. 23. Film ticket prices and locations vary; see listing below.
Akerman has been described in the Village Voice as "arguably the most important European director of her generation." She is often regarded as a successor to Jean Luc Godard for her maverick stance, intellectual brilliance, inventiveness and productivity -- having made over 30 short and feature-length films since 1968.
On Tuesday, March 4, Akerman will lead an informal discussion and show selected video clips from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Center for Theatre Arts' Film Forum, and from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. she will attend a reception in the lobby of the center.
At 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Hall Theatre, Akerman will introduce her film D'Est (From the East) and follow the screening with a question-and-answer session.
Released in 1993, D'Est documents Akerman's journey to eastern Germany, Poland and Russia in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany. The film forms the basis of a major video installation on exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York City Feb. 23 through May 27. Ticket prices for D'Est are $4.50 for the general public, $4 students and seniors.
Upcoming Cornell screenings of Akerman films are as follows:
"Chantal Akerman's challenges to conventional film making have been as important as Godard's, with more than a feminist twist in content," said Marilyn Rivchin, a senior lecturer in filmmaking who will co-host Akerman's March 4 talk. "In her classic film Jeanne Dielman, she uses extremely rigorous aesthetics of framing and real-time structures to delimit a woman's everyday life until it explodes. She was influenced by avant-garde filmmakers of the sixties, like Brakhage, Snow and Warhol, and as an experimenter with narrative form -- even musicals -- she is one of the most interesting women film directors in the world."
Akerman's visit to Cornell is cosponsored by the Cornell Council for the Arts, Department of Romance Studies, Field of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Studies, Women's Studies Program and Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. For more information on the Akerman film series, call Cornell Cinema at 255-3522.