Down There

Là-bas

Time and time again throughout her career, Chantal Akerman refrained herself from speaking of her Jewish origins, as she considered the objectivity of distance from the state of Israel to be a setback. However, when she found herself in a seaside apartment in Tel Aviv, for the first time in her life she seized the opportunity for a brave inner confession. Within these four walls, with no contact whatsoever with other people, she films and observes her neighbors, unfolding thoughts and memories of her childhood and family in a uniquely portrayed social distancing - unthought of at the time, but way more familiar nowadays.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Chantal Akerman
Script: Chantal Akerman
Cinematography: Chantal Akerman, Robert Fenz
Editing: Claire Atherton
Sound: Thomas Gauder
Production: AMIP, Xavier Carniaux, Paradise Films, Marilyn Watelet, Chemah I.S, Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains
Format: Digital File
Color: Color
Production Country: Belgium, France
Production Year: 2006
Duration: 78'
Contact: Shellac
Awards/Distinctions: Grand Prix (International Competition) – Marseille IFF 2016

Chantal Akerman

Chantal Akerman was born in 1950 in Brussels, and died in Paris in 2015. Akerman was a pioneer in feminist and experimental filmmaking. Born to Holocaust survivors from Poland, she attended a film school for a brief period from 1967 to 1968, before directing her first short, Blow Up My Town (1968). She went on to make over 40 fiction and documentary films during her life time, including Je, Tu, Lui, Elle (1974), Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), Tell me (1980), From the East (1993) and No Home Movie (2015). She is considered one of the most important European directors of her generation, “whose films have had a profound impact on feminist discourse within the cinema, and within avant-garde film and video art at an international level” (Gwedolyn Audrey Foster).

Filmography

1974 Je Tu Il Elle
1975 Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
1977 News from Home (doc)
1982 All Night Long
1993 From the East (doc)
1999 South (doc)
2004 Tomorrow We Move
2011 Almayer’s Folly
2015 No Home Movie (doc)