Claire Atherton

{{Infobox person

| name = Claire Atherton

| image = Claire Atherton.jpg

| imagesize =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1963}}

| birth_place = San Francisco, USA

| nationality = French, American

| education = Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, Paris

Institute of Foreign Language, Beijing

École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière, Paris

| occupation = Film editor, conception of video installations

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

| awards = Vision Award Ticinomoda 2019

}}

Claire Atherton is a film editor. From the mid-1980s onward, she was Chantal Akerman's closest collaborator and also worked with a range of international filmmakers. In 2019, she received the Vision Award Ticinomoda on the occasion of the 72^nd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, becoming the first woman to receive the award.{{Cite web|url=https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/pardo/festival-del-film-locarno/section-and-awards/special-awards/vision-award|title=Vision Award Ticinomoda|website=www.locarnofestival.ch|access-date=2019-12-09|archive-date=2019-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820014837/https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/pardo/festival-del-film-locarno/section-and-awards/special-awards/vision-award|url-status=dead}}

Biography

= Early life and education =

She was born in 1963 in San Francisco, U.S.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wdw.nl/en/participants/claire_atherton|title=Claire Atherton - Participants - Witte de With|website=www.wdw.nl|language=en|access-date=2019-12-09}} She grew up in New-York, then in Paris. She now works and lives in France. She is the daughter of Ioana Wieder, a French filmmaker of Romanian Jewish origin, and John Atherton, an American academic. Her sister is the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

Attracted very young by Taoist philosophy and Chinese ideograms, she spent a few months in China in 1980, at the Institute of Foreign Language in Beijing. Then she enrolled at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris.

Atherton had her first work experience in 1982, in [https://www.centre-simone-de-beauvoir.com/ Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir] in Paris{{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/527903/claire-atherton-interview/|title="Not Knowing Where You're Going": How Claire Atherton Edits Movies|date=2019-11-18|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-09}} where she worked as video technician. In 1984, she enrolled in the professional branch of the École Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière in Paris from which she graduated in 1986.{{Cite web|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/living-matter/|title=Living Matter by Claire Atherton - BOMB Magazine|website=bombmagazine.org|date=17 September 2019 |access-date=2019-12-29}} She then started to work on sound and image, collaborating notably with Delphine Seyrig and Carole Roussopoulos for some of the productions of Centre Simone de Beauvoir, and took part in various other projects. From the 1990s onwards, Atherton started to mainly focus on film editing.

= Collaboration with Chantal Akerman =

She met with Chantal Akerman in 1984 on the occasion of the theater adaptation of Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 by Sylvia Plath which was played by Delphine Seyrig at the Petit théâtre de Paris. Seyrig, who was then President of the Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir, asked Akerman and Atherton to film the performance. "I quickly sensed when we began the editing that it would be the beginning of a long story between Claire and me."{{Cite book |first= |title=Chantal Akerman. Una Autobiografia / An Autobiography |date=2005 |publisher=Malba - Coleccion Costatini |location=Buenos Aires}}

This episode marked the beginning of a 31-year collaboration between the filmmaker and the film editor,{{Cite web|url=http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/listening-to-images-a-conversation-with-editor-claire-atherton|title=Listening to Images: A Conversation with Editor Claire Atherton|website=MUBI|date=3 September 2019 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-25}} first behind the camera and then on film editing. Atherton worked with Akerman on her documentaries, fictions and installations, up until No Home Movie and NOW, an installation which was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-claire-atherton/|title=Interview: Claire Atherton|date=2016-11-02|website=Film Comment|language=en|access-date=2019-12-09}}{{Cite book|last=Crittenden|first=Roger|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EVbDwAAQBAJ&q=claire+atherton+interview+on+her+practice&pg=PT59|title=Fine Cuts: Interviews on the Practice of European Film Editing|date=2018-05-20|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-47511-0|language=en}}

= Work =

Atherton also works with many other filmmakers and artists. Among them are Luc Decaster, Emilio Pacull, Noëlle Pujol, Andreas Bolm, Emmanuelle Demoris, Christophe Bisson, Éric Baudelaire, Wang Bing, Bani Khoshnoudi, André Gil Mata, and many others.

In 2013, the Cinémathèque de Grenoble, France, organized an event dedicated to Atherton's work as film editor. It's the first retrospective dedicated to the body of work of an editor.

She is often invited to give master classes with young filmmakers during workshops in France and internationally. She also teaches in cinema and art schools such as La Fémis and at the HEAD School in Geneva, Switzerland.

She is also in charge of the conception and spatialization of Chantal Akerman's installations, which are presented on the occasion of exhibitions in the entire world.

= Recognition =

In 2019, she received the Vision Award Ticinomoda on the occasion of the 72nd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, becoming the first woman to receive the award which since 2013 "both highlights and pays tribute to someone whose creative work behind the scenes, as well as in their own right, has contributed to opening up new perspectives in film".{{Cite web|url=https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/pardo/festival-del-film-locarno/section-and-awards/special-awards/vision-award|title=Vision Award Ticinomoda|website=www.locarnofestival.ch|access-date=2020-02-25|archive-date=2019-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820014837/https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/pardo/festival-del-film-locarno/section-and-awards/special-awards/vision-award|url-status=dead}}

Filmography

With over 80 works to her name{{Cite web |title=Claire Atherton |url=https://www.unifrance.org/annuaires/personne/133914/claire-atherton |access-date=2019-12-09 |website=www.unifrance.org |language=fr}}—including shorts, features, art films, experimental pieces, documentaries, and video installations—Claire Atherton is especially known for her long-term collaboration with Chantal Akerman. She has also collaborated with a wide range of French and international directors and artists.

= Chantal Akerman =

In 2007, Chantal Akerman spoke about her collaboration with Claire Atherton in editing her films:

"We're in such osmosis that sometimes we don't even need to talk to each other. (...) For example, a shot, the length of a shot. We look at it and both tap the table at the same moment: we see the same things, we know when to stop. (...) There's nothing logical about the length of a shot. It's all about feeling. And it's a miracle to find someone who feels the way you do."

In addition to her film work, Claire Atherton has also been closely involved in the video installations that Chantal Akerman began creating in 1995, helping her to “imagine an editing process that is not only temporal, but also spatial.” Today, she is responsible for staging these installations in exhibitions in France and abroad.

In 2015, prior to the preview screening of No Home Movie at the Cinémathèque française, Claire Atherton read aloud a text she had written in tribute to Chantal Akerman.

Films

1986: Letters Home
1986: Rue Mallet-Stevens
1986: Le Marteau [The Hammer]
1989: Marguerite Paradis
1993: D'Est [From the East]
1996: Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman
1997: Le jour où...
1999: Sud [South]
2000: La Captive
2002: De l'autre côté [From the Other Side]
2002: Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
2003: Demain on déménage
2004: Autour d'hier, aujourd'hui et demain
2005: Là-bas
2007: Entretiens avec Babette Mangolte, Natalia Akerman, Aurore Clément, DVD set Chantal Akerman les années 70
2008: video design for I am a mistake by Jan Fabre
2008: A l’Est avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
2009: Tombée de nuit sur Shanghai [Falling Night in Shanghai]
2011: La Folie Almayer [Almayer's Folly]
2015: No Home Movie

Installations

1995: D’Est, au bord de la fiction
1995: Le 25e écran
1998: Selfportrait / Autobiography: A Work in Progress [https://www.frithstreetgallery.com/exhibitions/142-chantal-akerman-selfportrait-autobiography-a-work-in-progress/], Frith Street Gallery, London, Bruxelles, 20 Nov 1998 – 14 Jan 1999
2001: Woman Sitting After Killing
2002: From the Other Side
2002: A voice in the Desert
2003: From the Other Side, Fragment
2004: Marcher à côté de ses lacets dans un frigidaire vide
2007: La Chambre
2007: Je tu il elle
2007: In the Mirror
2008: Femmes d’Anvers en Novembre
2009: Tombée de nuit sur Shanghai
2009: Maniac Summer
2010: My Mother Laughs, Prelude
2012: Maniac Shadows
2014: De la mèr(e) au désert
2015: NOW [https://www.moussemagazine.it/magazine/chantal-akerman-ambika-p3-2015/], Mousse Magazine, "Chantal Akerman “Now” at Ambika P3, London", 03.12.2015{{col-end}}

= Regular Collaborations =

Claire Atherton has frequently collaborated with several directors and artists, including Emilio Pacull, Noëlle Pujol, Luc Decaster, Éric Baudelaire, Andreas Bolm and Christophe Bisson.

= Other Notable Collaborations =

In 2007, she edited the “Cœur” and “Oh la nuit” segments of Mafrouza, a documentary by Emmanuelle Demoris.

In 2023, she edited Man in Black, a film by Wang Bing that was part of the Official Selection at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

= Filmography (all films) =

1984: Le Centre Flora Tristan by Hélène Bourgault
1986: Letters Home by Chantal Akerman
1986: Rue Mallet-Stevens by Chantal Akerman
1986: Le Marteau [The Hammer] by Chantal Akerman
1989: Marguerite Paradis by Chantal Akerman
1992: Igor by Jean-François Gallotte
1992: Le cinéma est mort vive le cinéma by Emilio Pacull
1993: D'Est [From the East] by Chantal Akerman
1993: Les Profiteroles, couples mixtes à Cuba by Emilio Pacull
1994: Le Gamelan by Alain Jomy
1994: Les Colonnes d'Hercule d'Emilio Pacull
1994: Le Cinéma européen by Emilio Pacull
1996: Un divan à New York [A couch in New York] by Chantal Akerman
1996: Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman, in the collection "Cinéma de notre temps"
1996: Les Collèges en Seine Saint-Denis by Emilio Pacull
1997: Héros désarmés by Béatrice Kordon and Sylvie Ballyot
1997: Le jour où... by Chantal Akerman
1997: Ouganda, l'enfance kidnappée by Emilio Pacull
1997: L'Épousée by Françoise Grandcolin
1998: Emma, tribu kanak d'aujourd'hui by Emilio Pacull
1999: Sud [South] by Chantal Akerman
1999: Km 250 by Anne Faisandier
2000: La Captive by Chantal Akerman
2001: Rêve d'usine by Luc Decaster
2001: Filles de nos mères by Séverine Mathieu
2002: De l'autre côté [From the Other Side] by Chantal Akerman
2002: Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton by Chantal Akerman
2003: Demain on déménage by Chantal Akerman
2004: Opération Hollywood by Emilio Pacull
2004: Autour d'hier, aujourd'hui et demain by Chantal Akerman
2005: Là-bas by Chantal Akerman
2005: Héros fragiles by Emilio Pacull
2006: Portrait de Pascale, menuisière by Séverine Mathieu
2006: Rien n'a été fait by Noëlle Pujol and Ludovic Burel
2006: Du sucre et des fleurs dans nos moteurs by Jean-Michel Rodrigo
2007: Entretiens avec Babette Mangolte, Natalia Akerman, Aurore Clément, DVD set Chantal Akerman les années 70
2007: Mafrouza « Cœur », « Oh la nuit » by Emmanuelle Demoris
2008: Mr President by Emilio Pacull
2008: L'Écume des mères by Séverine Mathieu
2008: Tous les enfants sauf un by Noëlle Pujol and Andreas Bolm
2008: Fantaisie pour un château d'eau by Noëlle Pujol
2008: Chantal Akerman’s video design for I am a mistake by Jan Fabre
2008: A l'Est avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton by Chantal Akerman

2009: Tombée de nuit sur Shanghai [Falling Night in Shanghai] by Chantal Akerman
2009: Petites Histoires de mères by Séverine Mathieu
2009: Dieu nous a pas fait naître avec des papiers by Luc Decaster
2009: Ceux de Primo Levi by Anne Barbé
2010: Histoire racontée par Jean Dougnac by Noëlle Pujol
2010: Sorcières mes sœurs by Camille Ducellier
2010: Detroit ville sauvage by Florent Tillon
2010: On est là by Luc Decaster
2011: La vie est ailleurs [Life is on the Other Side] by Elsa Quinette
2011: La Folie Almayer [Almayer's Folly] by Chantal Akerman
2011: Die Wiedergänger [The Revenants] by Andreas Bolm
2011: Avenue Rivadavia by Christine Seghezzi
2012: Noctambules by Ilham Maad
2012: Video design for La Jungle des villes by Bertolt Brecht (Roger Vontobel)
2012: Hungry Man by Philippe Martin
2013: Au monde by Christophe Bisson
2013: Effacée by Anna Feillou
2013: Si j'existe je ne suis pas un autre by Marie Violaine Brincard and Olivier Dury
2014: Qui a tué Ali Ziri ? by Luc Decaster
2014: Histoires de la plaine by Christine Seghezzi
2015: No Home Movie by Chantal Akerman
2015: Aux Capucins by Anna Feillou
2016: Jumbo Toto histoires d'un éléphant by Noëlle Pujol
2016: Le Juge by Andreas Bolm
2016: Silêncio by Christophe Bisson
2016: Danse avec l'écume by Luc Decaster
2017: Also Known As Jihadi by Éric Baudelaire
2018: Walked the Way Home by Éric Baudelaire
2018: Les cavaliers fantômes by Christine Seghezzi
2018: Altérations / Kô Murobushi by Basile Doganis
2019: Un film dramatique by Éric Baudelaire
2020: The Glove (short film) by Éric Baudelaire
2020: Le chant des oubliés by Luc Decaster
2021: When There Is No More Music to Write by Éric Baudelaire
2021: Une Fleur à la Bouche [A Flower in the Mouth] by Éric Baudelaire
2020: Les lettres de Didier [Didier's Letters] by Noëlle Pujol
2022: Un souvenir d'archives by Christophe Bisson
2022: Intermède by Maria Kourkouta
2023: Man in Black by Wang Bing (Cannes Film Festival, Official Selection 2023)
2024: Fogo do Vento by Marta Mateus
2024: Sob a chama da candeia by André Gil Mata
2025: Regarde avec mes yeux et donne-moi les tiens [Look Through My Eyes and Give Me Your Own] by Noëlle Pujol
2025: The Vanishing Point by Bani Khoshnoudi

= Photography =

1986: Femmes et Musique, production of Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (first assistant camera)
1986: Rue Mallet-Stevens by Chantal Akerman (director of photography)
1986: Le Marteau by Chantal Akerman (director of photography)
1988: Histoires d'Amérique by Chantal Akerman (first assistant camera)
1988: L'institut du monde Arabe (first assistant camera)
1988: Marguerite Paradis by Chantal Akerman (director of photography)
1988: Notes pour Debussy by Jean-Patrick Lebel (first assistant camera)
1990: Igor by Jean-François Gallotte (director of photography)

= Articles and Publications =

2015: Tribute to Chantal Akerman: translation by Felicity Caplin of the text written and read by Claire Atherton at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, on Novembre 16, 2015, on the occasion of the screening of No Home Movie : 'Chantal Akerman: La Passion de L'Intime / An Intimate Passion', Senses of Cinema n° 77, Dec. 2015, also published in Camera Obscrura: Feminism, Culture and Media Studies, Duke University Press, 2019.{{Cite web|url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/chantal-akerman/chantal-akerman-claire-atherton/|title=Tribute to Chantal Akerman by Claire Atherton|last=Atherton|first=Claire|date=2015-12-08|website=Senses of Cinema|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-14}}{{Cite web|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/camera-obscura/issue/34/1%20(100)|title=Volume 34 Issue 1 (100) {{!}} Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies {{!}} Duke University Press|website=read.dukeupress.edu|access-date=2020-02-14}}
2016: Interview with Tina Poglajen, Film Comment{{Cite web|url=https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-claire-atherton/|title=Interview: Claire Atherton|date=2016-11-02|website=Film Comment|language=en|access-date=2020-02-25}}.
2017: 'Our Way of Working: A Conversation with Claire Atherton about Chantal Akerman', interview with Ivone Margulies, Camera Obscura n°100, pp 13–28.{{Cite web|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/camera-obscura/issue/34/1%20(100)|title=Volume 34 Issue 1 (100) {{!}} Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies {{!}} Duke University Press|website=read.dukeupress.edu|access-date=2020-02-14}}
2018: 'Pouvons-nous être en relation avec ce qui est ? / Can we be in touch with what is?', Qu'est-ce que le réel ? Des cinéastes prennent position/What is Real? Filmmakers weigh in, dir. Andréa Picard, Post-édition / Cinéma du Réel, 2018, pp. 13–16.
2018: 'A conversation with Claire Atherton', by Roger Crittenden, Fine Cuts: Interview on the Practice of European Film Editing, New-York: Routledge, 2018.
2019: 'Living Matter', Bomb n°148.{{Cite web|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/living-matter/|title=Living Matter by Claire Atherton - BOMB Magazine|website=bombmagazine.org|date=17 September 2019 |access-date=2020-02-14}}
2019: 'On Chantal Akerman', News From Home: The Films of Chantal Akerman (catalogue published on the occasion of Akeman's retrospective organized as part of the Toronto International Film Festival).{{Cite web|url=https://www.tiff.net/the-review/news-from-home-the-films-of-chantal-akerman|title=News from Home: The Films of Chantal Akerman|website=TIFF|language=en|access-date=2020-02-14}}
2019: 'About D'Est. Editing Chantal Akerman's Film', Versopolis, nov. 4, 2019.{{Cite web|url=https://www.versopolis.com/arts/to-see/820/about-d-est|title=About D'Est {{!}} Versopolis|last=Beletrina|first=Production|website=www.versopolis.com|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-14}}
2019: 'The Art of Living', interview with Yaniya Lee, canadianart, 1er mars 2019 (web).{{Cite web|url=https://canadianart.ca/interviews/the-art-of-living/|title=The Art of Living|last=Lee|first=Yaniya|website=Canadian Art|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-14}}
2019: Laura Davis, "Un film dramatique", Filmexplorer (web).{{Cite web |title=Un film dramatique |url=https://www.filmexplorer.ch/detail/un-film-dramatique/ |access-date=2020-02-25 |website=filmexplorer.ch |language=en}}
2019: Laura Davis, "Listening to Images: A conversation with Editor Claire Atherton", Mubi notebook (web).{{Cite web |date=3 September 2019 |title=Listening to Images: A Conversation with Editor Claire Atherton |url=http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/listening-to-images-a-conversation-with-editor-claire-atherton |access-date=2020-02-25 |website=MUBI |language=en}}
2019: Justine Smith, ' "Not Knowing Where You're Going": How Claire Atherton Edits Movies', Hypperallergic (web).{{Cite web |date=2019-11-18 |title="Not Knowing Where You're Going": How Claire Atherton Edits Movies |url=https://hyperallergic.com/527903/claire-atherton-interview/ |access-date=2020-02-25 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}
2019: Lorenzo Buccella, "Life needs editing", News from the Locarno Festival (web).{{Cite web |title=Life needs editing |url=https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/pardo/pardo-live/today-at-festival/2019/day-5/vision_award_atherton? |access-date=2020-02-25 |website=www.locarnofestival.ch}}

= Talks and Masterclasses =

2016: "Editing, A Composition", Jihlava International Film Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dokrevue.cz/en/clanky/masterclass-claire-atherton|title=Masterclass: Claire Atherton {{!}} DOK.REVUE|website=www.dokrevue.cz|access-date=2020-02-25}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY3swLgQM7M|title=Masterclass: Claire Atherton|last=|first=|date=|website=YouTube|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200311000728/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY3swLgQM7M |archive-date=2020-03-11 |access-date=}}
2016: "The Art of Editing": Tel Aviv International Student Films Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW8yuCkwjZw|title=The Art of Editing|last=|first=|date=|website=YouTube|access-date=}}
2018: Frankfurt University, Masterclass and presentation of D'est by Chantal Akerman.{{Cite web|url=https://chantal-akerman.de/claire-atherton-filme-schneiden-mit-chantal-akerman/|title=Claire Atherton. Filme schneiden mit Chantal Akerman – Chantal Akerman – Lecture & Film|language=de-DE|access-date=2020-02-25}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.normativeorders.net/de/veranstaltungen/alleveranstaltungen/97-veranstaltungen/vorlesungsreihe-kino/6637-filme-schneiden-mit-chantal-akerman|title=Filme schneiden mit Chantal Akerman|website=www.normativeorders.net|access-date=2020-02-25}}
2019: A conversation with Claire Atherton moderated by Antoine Thirion and Nicholas Elliott during the 72nd edition of the International Film Festival of Locarno.{{Citation|title=SPAZIO CINEMA: Vision Award Ticinomoda to Claire Atherton|url=https://www.facebook.com/LocarnoFilmFestival/videos/spazio-cinema-vision-award-ticinomoda-to-claire-atherton/2371071709841018/|language=en|access-date=2020-02-25}}
2020: "The Mechanism of the Organic ", masterclass of Claire Atherton moderated by Antoine Thirion, during the 10th edition of FICUNAM, Mexico.{{Cite web|title=Claire Atherton: El mecanismo de lo orgánico, en 16mm – FICUNAM|url=https://ficunam.unam.mx/claire-atherton-el-mecanismo-de-lo-organico-en-16mm/|access-date=2020-11-16|language=es-MX}}{{Cite web|title=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/|access-date=2020-11-16|website=www.youtube.com}}
2020: "Spatializing cinema : a conversation between Claire Atherton and Dana Linssen", Eye Museum, Amsterdam.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020|title=Spatializing Cinema|url=https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/film/spatializing-cinema|access-date=|website=}}
2020 : 'Pensadores Contemporáneos en Síntesis', filmed interview with Bani Khoshnoudi for TV UNAM, March 2020.{{Cite web|title=CLAIRE ATHERTON - YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90TmBo60aFc&feature=youtu.be|access-date=2020-11-16|website=www.youtube.com}}