MARKER, CHRIS

(1921- )

Director and screenwriter. Born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, filmmaker Chris Marker is probably one of the best-known and most widely respected documentary filmmakers in the world. He is also one of the few documentary film-makers to be considered anauteur, so individual is his filmmaking style, at once classical and avant-garde, influenced by the ideals of political engagement in French literature from Jean-Paul Sartre on-ward, and underpinned by an interest in philosophy and the workings of memory. Marker's documentaries have dealt with topics as far-ranging as American hegemony, Africa, and the Internet. In recent years, he has grown fairly postmodern in his filmmaking style, experimenting with possibilities for multimedia, the Internet, and film-making.

Marker was awarded a Golden Berlin Bear for Best Feature-Length Documentary forDescription d'un combatin 1961. His documentary,Le joli mai, won Best First Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1963. He won thePrix Jean-Vigofor Best Short Film for his 1953 documentaryLes statues meurent aussi(withAlain Resnais)— a film that was banned from commercial cinema for ten years — and won the prize again in 1963 for the shortLa Jetée. His documentaryCuba Si! (1960) was also banned. In 1983, he won aCésarfor Best Short Documentary forJunkopia. He often traveled abroad to make documentaries;Si j'avais quatre Dromadaires(1966) features photographs from over twenty countries. He produced and codirected the documentaryLoin du Vietnam(1967). His first independently directed film wasDimanche à Pékin(1955).