70 minutes / Color
Release: 2003
Copyright: 1999
South is included on the same DVD as Chantal Akerman's From the Other Side.
Inspired by her love of William Faulkner and James Baldwin, renowned director Chantal Akerman had planned to produce a meditation on the American South. However, just days before she was to begin filming, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas. A black family man, Byrd has been severely beaten by three white men, chained to their truck, and dragged three miles through predominately black parts of the county.
This racially motivated killing shook the country, and revealed the intense hate that still lies just beneath the surface of our society. Instead of following the story in a typical American media fashion, Akerman allows the story to slowly unfold on its own. Long, panning shots set the stage, creating the world of Jasper. Patient interviews reveal the thoughts and emotions of the local townspeople. Akerman's access to their lives, including being allowed to film Byrd's funeral, allows her to tell the tale in a pensive and beautiful fashion.
Alternating static shots and dolly shots, Akerman reconstitutes the horrible incident. "We found pieces of his body all along the road," says one witness. But this is not an anatomy of his murder, nor the autopsy of a black man lynched by three white males. Rather, it is an evocation of how this event fits in to a landscape and climate that is as much mental as physical.
Akerman writes, "How does the southern silence become so heavy and so menacing so suddenly? How do the trees and the whole natural environment evoke so intensely death, blood, and the weight of history? How does the present call up the past? And how hoes this past, with a mere gesture or a simple regard, haunt and torment you as you wander along an empty cotton field, or a dusty country road?"
Also available on DVD boxset Chantal Akerman: Four Films.
"Conjures the ghosts of the hate crimes and lynchings that have plagued that part of the U.S. for decades. [SOUTH] makes its sorrowful points succinctly."—Variety
"Comparable in force and originality to Godard or Fassbinder, Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation."—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
"The films of Chantal Akerman are the single most important and coherent body of work by a woman director in the history of the cinema."—The Film Center Gazette, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Select Accolades
A self-portrait by experimental narrative and feminist Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.
Chantal Akerman | 2001 | 64 minutes | Color | French | English subtitles
Four documentaries spanning two decades are included in this 5-disc box set, with a 16-page booklet and bonus film about the late filmmaker.
Chantal Akerman | 2016 | 419 minutes | Color | English; French; Spanish | English subtitles
A conversation with Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman about her films and her directorial philosophy.
Gustavo Beck and Leonardo Luiz Ferreira | 2012 | 62 minutes | Color | English
Chantal Akerman retraces a journey from the end of summer to deepest winter, from East Germany, across Poland and the Baltics, to Moscow. "One of the 10 Best Films of the 1990s."— J. Hoberman, Artforum
Chantal Akerman | 2003 | 110 minutes | Color | No dialog
Using technology developed for the military, the flow of illegal immigration into San Diego has been stemmed. But for the desperate, there are still the dangerous deserts of Arizona, where Chantal Akerman shifts her focus.
Chantal Akerman | 2012 | 99 minutes | Color | Spanish | English subtitles
Chantal Akerman follows choreographer Pina Bausch and her dance company on a European tour.
Chantal Akerman | 2013 | 57 minutes | Color | English; French | English subtitles
