With Chantal in New York in the 1970s: An Interview with Babette Mangolte

For this interview, cinematographer, photographer, and filmmaker Babette Mangolte agreed to focus on her collaborations as cinematographer with Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman on her 1970s New York films. Besides Jonas Mekas and Anthology Film Archives, Mangolte brought in the art scene— Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, Annette Michelson, Yvonne Rainer, Philip Glass—and some people who were not in New York, such as Marcel Hanoun, Antoinette Fouque, and Jean-Pierre Gorin. Sometimes she pointed out connections with films that Chantal made later. She talked about practical and technical specifics involved in creating Akerman’s no-budget films in New York compared to the constraints that would have faced a new filmmaker in France or Belgium at the time. The original 1995 interview was published in Italian for the Pesaro Film Festival. It has been substantially reworked and expanded in 2018.