Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman has died at 65, Libération reports.
The groundbreaking feminist/avant-garde filmmaker began making movies in 1968, inspired by Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and a viewing (at age 15) of Godard’s Pierrot le fou. Akerman was best known for the 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which the New York Times famously described as the “first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema.” Her other films included D’Est, Un divan à New York, The Captive, and Demain on déménage (which won Best French-Language Film at the 2005 Lumiere Awards).
Her most recent film, No Home Movie, is an intimate documentary chronicling the final years of her relationship with her mother. It premiered in August at the Locarno Film Festival and is currently playing at the New York Film Festival. Just yesterday, Akerman was among the artists named as participants in PS1’s annual “Greater New York” exhibition.