1984

Family Business

UK, 1984 / 16mm / Color / 18 min
Aurore Clément, Chantal Akerman, Marilyn Watelet, Leslie Vandermeulen


“Charlot (c'est moi) et Aurore [Clement].”

Family Business

UK, 1984 / 16mm / Color / 18 min

Cast: Aurore Clément, Chantal Akerman, Marilyn Watelet, Leslie Vandermeulen

Editing: Patrick Mimouni

Photography: Luc Benhamou

A short about filmmaking, financing, acting, and why all of these things are, at heart, totally absurd.

Chantal Akerman’s Family Business, a short about filmmaking, financing, acting, and why all of these things are, at heart, totally absurd. It was not uncommon for Akerman to dress her personal experiences in a fictional garb, yet her candor was continually refreshing–here because it’s funny, genuinely funny.

Made while Akerman was in the US writing the script for Golden Eighties, this Chaplinesque picaresque details the filmmaker’s trip to Los Angeles in search of a long-lost rich uncle, whom she hopes might be able to produce her films.