Talk with musical highlights at the Jewish Museum of Belgium
On May 29, the Jewish Museum of Belgium welcomes Luc Behamou (cinematographer) and Sonia Wieder-Atherton (composer) for a discussion and musical moments.
Aside from their close relationship with Akerman, Luc Benhamou (cinematographer) and Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cellist) collaborated on Histoires d’Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy (1988). A film where Akerman reunites with the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer as she strives to tell and revived the memories of a world that is dissapearing, “the humus of Singer’s oeuvre” as she writes in her notes of intention. Composed as a narrative documentary, the film blends the director’s own imagined memories with old stories of Jewish migrants of New York.
Sonia Wieder-Atherton and Luc Benhamou wish to share a moment of exchange by questioning Chantal Akerman’s relationship with Judaism. Some of the possible approaches are through her work, but also through her positions on several issues, her relationship to biblical texts and to transmission. Music will also be present through the voice of Sonia Wieder-Atherton’s cello.
Program:
6 pm doors open
6:30 pm start of discussion (approx. 1h30)
8 p.m. end (no drinks)
Screening and talk at CINEMATEK
On May 30, Histoires d’Amérique is screening at CINEMATEK in the context of its integral Akerman retrospective. The screening is followed by a conversation between Benhamou and Wieder-Atherton on the role of music in Akerman’s filmography. Notably on Histoires d’Amérique, as the collaboration between the director and the cellist for the film’s score gave rise to the recording of the liturgical Jewish chants for cello and piano.
