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By Danielle Furfaro
Brooklyn Daily
Chris Marker was at the avant-garde of film — and paranoia.
Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMCinematek series will celebrate the late French filmmaker with a retrospective running Aug. 15–28. Marker’s work stands out because of his knack for making very human and emotional films about post-apocalyptic nightmares, according to one of the organizers.
“His work is completely unique, with a combination of deep feeling for art and politics and time and memory,” said Nellie Killian, BAMCinematek’s film programmer. “It speaks to me and to a lot of people.”
The series will showcase 28 Marker films from his 54-year career, including the famous “La Jetee,” a 1962 short that is mostly compromised of still shots and tells the story of a refugee who is used as a subject in post-nuclear war time travel experiments.
If that sounds familiar, it is because the 1995 Bruce Willis movie “12 Monkeys” borrowed heavily from Marker’s story.
“His films have connections to different moments in technology and political uprising,” said Killian. “There is always something relevant or something you can look back to.”
Other well-known Marker flicks include “A Grin Without a Cat,” about socialist movements in the 1960s and ’70s, and meandering travelogue “Sans Soleil,” which will screen Aug. 24 and 23, respectively.
This will be the first Chris Marker retrospective in New York City, said Killian.
“Harvard did a big Chris Marker show and they had one in London, but there has not been one in New York,” she said.
Marker died in 2012 at the age of 91.
Chris Marker retrospective at BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718) 636–4100, www.bam.org]. Aug. 15–28 at various times. $13, $8 for members.