MoMA’s complete retrospective of Chantal Akerman’s work for the cinema, comprising more than 40 features and rarely screened short films in new digital preservations, celebrates a multiyear effort by the Fondation Chantal Akerman and the Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK to restore, document, and exhibit her career in film, installation, and writing. International audiences hungering to discover more about Akerman (b. Belgium, 1950–2015) in the wake of her death have been rewarded with unprecedented access to her moving-image and paper archives.
In addition to her feature films, many recently restored—from Je, tu, il, elle (1974), News from Home (1977), Golden Eighties (1986), D’Est (1993), and Demain on déménage (2004) to her venerated Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)—MoMA’s retrospective also offers a renewed appreciation of her work in the short film form, including the four 8mm studies she made in the summer of 1967 as part of her entrance exams to the Brussels film school INSAS; her collaborations with the German choreographer Pina Bausch, the Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, the French cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, and the actors Delphine Seyrig, Aurore Clément, Catherine Deneuve, and Sami Frey; and her searching portraits of teenagers in Yonkers, nightfall over Shanghai, and a group of elderly Jewish women who survived the Holocaust (including, of course, her mother Natalia).
On September 9, as part of Crossing the Line Festival and in collaboration with MoMA, L’Alliance New York presents the New York premiere of D’Est en musique, a live performance with Sonia Wieder-Atherton, at their Florence Gould Theater. Wieder-Atherton will also perform at MoMA before the September 12 screening of Histoires d’Amérique. Other guest presentations throughout the retrospective include Akerman’s cinematographer Babette Mangolte and her screenwriting collaborator Henry Bean.
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, with Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, and Irene Rihueta Varea, Intern, Department of Film. Thanks to Sylviane Akerman and the Fondation Chantal Akerman, Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK, Janus Films, Icarus Films, and INA.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
