News of Chantal Akerman’s apparent suicide, at age 65, rocked the film world last fall. Like many visionaries who died before their work was duly appraised, the Belgian auteur’s death has sparked a rediscovery of her incredible catalogue. A boundary-pushing innovator who often blended narrative, documentary, and experimental forms, Akerman emerged in the generation that followed the French New Wave with her epic portrait of everyday womanhood, JEAN DIELMAN. Released when Akerman was only 24 years old (one year younger than Orson Welles when he directed CITIZEN KANE, and three years younger than Jean-Luc Godard when he made BREATHLESS), the film depicts the daily routine of a widowed mother – caring for her son, peeling potatoes, making the bed, meeting johns – with the same meticulous, matter-of-fact approach.

Over the next 40 years, Akerman made dozens of pieces, many of which explored the relationship of women to the institutions of society by diving into the mundane and relishing in subtleties. Great Directors: Chantal Akerman includes the autobiographical road film JE TU IL ELLE – a tale in three parts about an aimless young bohemian. Another pick, the impressionistic documentary NEWS FROM HOME, pairs grainy images of gritty 1970s New York City with excerpts of letters from Akerman’s mother back in Belgium.

The series will launch on Friday, April 15, with NO HOME MOVIE, a portrait of the filmmaker’s Holocaust survivor mother and Akerman’s last film, which premiered just weeks before her death, and a new documentary on Akerman’s life and work, I DON’T BELONG ANYWHERE: THE FILMS OF CHANTAL AKERMAN.

Generously supported by Omaha Steaks and Sam Walker.