Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman was born in 1950.
At the age of 15, she discovered Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou, which introduced her to cinema. She entered the INSAS school in Brussels in 1967, but left after just a few months. The following year, however, she made her first matrix short, Saute ma ville. In the early 1970s, Akerman moved to New York, where she discovered the American underground scene, which would have a profound influence on her work. She made a number of experimental shorts there, before returning to Brussels, where she produced her first feature Je tu il elle (1974), followed by Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). Considered one of the major works of cinematic modernity since its screening at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in Cannes, the film was named the best film of all time by the British magazine Sight&Sound in 2022.
A tireless artist, Akerman has exploded narrative boundaries throughout her career of over 40 films, tackling in turn fiction, documentary, musicals, literary adaptations and television commissions. Travelling the world, she has never ceased to explore essential concerns in her work: history, identity, exile, belonging, memory, intimacy and gender.
Since 1995, Chantal Akerman has created over a dozen installations, mainly using her films as starting points, which have been shown in the most prestigious museums and art events, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Documenta in Kassel, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Eye Film Museum, the ICA in London and the Venice Biennale. Her installations and work archives are at the heart of the recent exhibition “Chantal Akerman Travelling”, proposed in 2024 by the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, hosted in autumn 2024 by Jeu de Paume in Paris and by the Mac/CCB in Lisbon in spring 2025.
A close friend of the written word, she is also the author of several books that illuminate her work and have been translated around the world.
Chantal Akerman died in Paris on October 5, 2015. In 2017, her sister created the Chantal Akerman Foundation, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, to preserve and make accessible her archives, writings and films. Constantly in demand by cinephiles, cinematheques and festivals alike, they remain an invaluable influence for many filmmakers and artists.
