Chantal Akerman

Chantal Ackerman's death is a terrible loss. I got to know Ackerman in the 1970's. We met in Milwaukee at a conference on Film. We spent many hours talking and getting to know each other. Subsequently, over the years, we kept in contact and recently, I spoke to her on the phone because Emily Carr University of Art and Design had decided to give her an Honorary Doctorate in recognition of her life-long work in the cinema and the profound effect she had a generations of filmmakers. An immense talent, Chantal was also profoundly sensitive to the nuances and subtleties of how images and sounds communicate meaning. She played with narrative, with the many ways in which stories can be told, with the challenges of aesthetic form and mise-en-scène. Her body of work will stand the test of time. A severe and terrible loss.