Chantal Akerman

Sweeping scenes of New York City contrasted to the letters from the director's mother in Brussels.

Sex, love, food and personal identity become intertwined as a young woman sets out to define herself, her loves and her desires.

This film tackles the question of its title, chronicles the best of filmmaking today, and proposes where cinema will go—and should go—in the future.

When asked to participate in the Cinema, of Our Time series, Chantal Akerman jokingly suggested herself as subject matter. She envisioned a film consisting solely of excerpts from her films, but when pressed by the producers to include footage of herself, Akerman grudgingly agreed, and divided the film into two parts. The first part opens with Akerman in her apartment, reading from a text directly to the camera, describing the problems she encountered making this film. What emerges from this mise-en-scene is a funny, often personal, and always thoughtful confession from this extremely perceptive filmmaker. Part two lets Akerman's films speak for her, taking clips from her extensive filmography and linking them anonymously until they form a new film. There are scenes from Jeanne Dielman, her best-known film, but also glimpses of several other works - forays into experimental film, comedic shorts, musicals, narrative features - including an early short that stars a very young Chantal.

Jake and Mati are two outsiders in the Portuguese city of Porto who once experienced a brief connection. He's an American loner exiled from his family; she's a French student abroad with her professor lover. One day they see each other from a distance at an archeological site and then again at a train station and a café, where Jake works up the courage to speak to Mati for the first time and they embark on a night of carefree intimacy.This experience is looked at years later using fragments from Mati and Jake’s lives apart, both of them still haunted by the powerful moments they shared. Working backwards and forwards with time, and alternating a narrow and wide visual canvas, Porto reveals the depths of a surprising encounter, eventually settling into the one unforgettable night when Mati and Jake chanced upon feelings of love and passion that they never thought were possible.

A widow goes about her daily routine, including turning tricks in the afternoon.