The French documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert finds beauty, grace, and mystery in observing the workaday world. Whether chronicling a year’s lessons in a one-room rural schoolhouse (Être et avoir, 2002), behind-the-scenes activity of a great museum (Louvre City, 1990), or the quotidian life of the deaf (In the Land of the Deaf, 1992), Philibert shapes compelling feature films from the discrete narratives his subjects provide just by going about their business. Distinguished by an unsentimental compassion, Philibert’s films are notable for their affirmation of the serendipitous.
Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film and Media.
This exhibition was prepared by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, to whom the Museum offers its gratitude. The Department of Film and Media also thanks the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, New York, in particular Véronique Godard and Marie Bonnel, the former and present directors of the audio-visual office, for their support.