Description
Russian premiere
Guided by the narration of Charlotte Rampling, “Nostalgia for the Future” is a descent into the labyrinthine world of Chris Marker, the “best-known author of unknown films,” who spent a lifetime concealing himself behind a veil of pseudonyms and images of cats.
Moving through a constellation of personal documents and film fragments, an archivist attempts to decode the man through the material traces he left behind. By repurposing and recontextualizing Marker’s own body of work, the film treats his images as “time machines,” transforming the archive into a landscape of living memory.
“Nostalgia for the Future” is a meditation on memory, identity, and the power our past images hold over the futures we imagine.
About the director:
Brecht Debackere
Artist and filmmaker working at the intersection of visual media, technology, and research. He received a master’s degree in image synthesis and computer animation from the University of Hong Kong. Guided by the idea of “digital permaculture,” he looks for sustainable, conscious ways of working with technology and memory. His work has been shown at the StedelijkMuseum in Amsterdam, S.M.A.K. in Ghent, and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The Russian premiere of Debackere’s first film, Exprmntl (2016), was at Message to Man, where he served on the In Silico experimental film competition jury. He then spent nearly ten years on the work and legacy of Chris Marker. That long inquiry, including work with Marker’s archive at the Cinémathèque française, is the basis of his new film Nostalgia for the Future.