Overview
When a 21-year-old Chantal Akerman first moved to New York in the early 70s, her mother wrote her a series of letters containing both maternal worries and pride, as well as the minutiae of life back home in Belgium. Returning to the city in 1976, Akerman reads these mother-to-daughter letters aloud against a backdrop of shots of Manhattan and a soundtrack of beeping cars and rumbling subway trains.
The result is a mesmerising reflection on the raw, thrilling loneliness of the city and the intimate, often banal, warmth of the family home. Ranked joint 52nd in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll
Related

No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman
Short documentary 2025 14 mins Director: Jessica McGoff
This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.

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Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.

Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.

Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.

Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.

De l’autre côté De l’autre côté
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Made over 20 years ago, this exploration of the lives of Mexican migrants and the cruelties of borders makes for equally urgent viewing today.

Sud Sud
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A study of the troubled, racist history of the American South and its legacy.

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Chantal Akerman's magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.

Je tu il elle Je tu il elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
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Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.

Golden Eighties Golden Eighties
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Song, dance and romance charge this joyous hair-salon set musical, but Akerman’s take on 80s consumerism is anything but frothy.

Le Déménagement Le Déménagement
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Surrounded by unpacked boxes, a man delivers an extended monologue on indecision and regret.

No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman
Short documentary 2025 14 mins Director: Jessica McGoff
This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.

Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
Drama 1968 13 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.

Je tu il elle Je tu il elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

No Home Movie No Home Movie
Documentary 2015 118 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s rigorously observational portrait of her late mother takes on a whole new significance in the wake of the director’s own premature passing.

Les Rendez-vous d'Anna Les Rendez-vous d'Anna
Drama 1978 128 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A quasi self-portrait that was unfairly neglected on its release, this road movie is a profound musing on loneliness, displacement and the long shadow of the war.

Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.

Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.

Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
Drama 1968 13 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.

Je tu il elle Je tu il elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.

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