Chantal Akerman: Filmmaker and Philosopher
Chantal Akerman turns her pioneering camera on neglected contexts from transitional spaces like hotel lobbies and street corners, to domestic spaces like kitchens and bedrooms. Through her wide-ranging films, Akerman addresses subjects such as home and homelessness, work and social reproduction, self and identity, and desire in its many forms.
Chantal Akerman: Filmmaker and Philosopher (Bloomsbury, 2025) is the first philosophical study of Akerman's oeuvre. Andreja Novakovic (Philosophy) looks at patterns of staying put and moving on in the Belgian auteur's deeply personal body of work. Drawing on writers from Stanley Cavell to Simone de Beauvoir to Silvia Federici, Novakovic offers a reinterpretation of one of the most important directors of European cinema, whose Jeanne Dielman was recently selected as Sight and Sound's Greatest Film of All Time.
Novakovic is joined by Miryam Sas (Comparative Literature and Film & Media). After a brief discussion, they respond to questions from the audience.
