Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

South

Her Head in Films • 1h 10m

Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 1999 • 70 minutes

Inspired by her love of William Faulkner and James Baldwin, renowned director Chantal Akerman had planned to produce a meditation on the American South. However, just days before she was to begin filming, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas. A black family man, Byrd has been severely beaten by three white men, chained to their truck, and dragged three miles through predominately black parts of the county.

Alternating static shots and dolly shots, Akerman reconstitutes the horrible incident. "We found pieces of his body all along the road," says one witness. But this is not an anatomy of his murder, nor the autopsy of a black man lynched by three white males. Rather, it is an evocation of how this event fits in to a landscape and climate that is as much mental as physical.

"Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation."—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

Tags
african-american studies, akerman, americas, baldwin, black history, blackhistory2, chantal akerman, civil rights, criminal justice, cultural and ethnic studies, doc, documentary, expository, faulkner, film, history, human rights, human rights1, icarus films, james byrd, jasper, jr, late 20th century (u.s. history), law and legal studies, lynching, ovid, ovid_ca, s_0005, s_0043, s_0058, s_0150, s_0170, s_0263, s_0408, s_0597, slow, social issues, sociology, south, texas, the, the american south, title_nopqrs, title_s, u.s. history, united states, usa, video, white supremacy, womandirector, world regions

Up Next in Her Head in Films

  • Towards Mathilde
    1:23:23
    Towards Mathilde

    Towards Mathilde

    Directed by Claire Denis • Documentary • With Mathilde Monnier • 2004 • 84 minutes

    Emphasizing raw physicality, craft, and in-the-moment fervor over exposition, Towards Mathilde, from filmmaker Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, Let the Sunshine In), is a documentary portrait par excel...

  • Wendy and Lucy
    1:20:44
    Wendy and Lucy

    Wendy and Lucy

    Directed by Kelly Reichardt • Drama • With Michelle Williams, Walter Dalton, Will Oldham, John Robinson, Larry Fessenden, Will Patton • 2008 • 80 minutes

    Proving why she is one of the most highly-regarded auteurs of current cinema, Kelly Reichardt's (OLD JOY) subtle storytelling technique uses a...

  • Araby
    1:36:29
    Araby

    Araby

    Directed by João Dumans & Affonso Uchoa • Drama • With Aristides de Sousa • 2017 • 98 minutes

    Andre, a teenager, lives in an industrial town in Brazil near an old aluminum factory. One day, a factory worker, Cristiano, suffers an accident. Asked to go to Cristiano’s house to pick up clothes ...

×