Jacques Derrida

As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.

On 19 February 2003, four days after an international day of protest against the imminent invasion of Iraq, René Major and the Institut des hautes études en psychanalyse organized a public debate in Paris between Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard: ‘Pourquoi la guerre aujourd’hui?’ In the twelve years between the debate and its publication in book form, the ‘war on terror’ has escalated in an often unpredictable manner. However, the discussion between Derrida and Baudrillard has proven to be prescient, and their analyses remain useful for thinking the contemporary geopolitical moment.

A look back at the life of Jacques Derrida, on the 10th anniversary of the philosopher's death.

Documentary about French philosopher (and author of deconstructionism) Jacques Derrida, who sparked fierce debate throughout American academia.

An exploration of the life and ideas of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004).

By the end of the 1980's a new architectural sensibility challenged the prevailing post-Modern attitude and brought forth new and daring designs. Driven by the philosophy and theory of Jacques Derrida, the architects of Deconstructivism are rooted in a movement that urges us to examine the space we move through. Deconstructivist Architects documents explosive and seemingly chaotic structures from Vienna to L.A., and interviews those who pursue its aesthetic issues. Filmed on location with the architects and at the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, which was curated by Philip Johnson.

Through the experiences of two women in Paris and London, Ghost Dance offers an analysis of the complexity of our conceptions of ghosts, memory and the past. The film focuses on the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who observes, 'I think cinema, when it's not boring, is the art of letting ghosts come back.' He also says that 'memory is the past that has never had the form of the present.'

"De tout cœur", editing by Safaa Fathy,2005 – During Jacques Derrida ’s last years, Safaa Fathy filmed the philosopher ’s public lectures. Safaa Fathy put together three of these original lectures in a film for the FIDMarseille festival. “De tout cœur ” speaks of life and death, the Other and friendship. Derrida was unable to accept the invitation to attend the Writers ’Parliament in Strasbourg, so he sent an “open letter to Palestine ”. Facing the camera,he reads a collage of texts, excerpts from books and correspondence. The second fragment shows the statement on cloning made by Derrida, unique in his career, presented at the Kléber bookstore in Strasbourg. Lastly ,on the occasion of a conversation filmed in a Paris University, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy deconstruct together and in public the imagination of the heart. These are three records of living words, three exercises in thinking on sight.

In the city of Nijar in Spain, the balsa of Isabel Esteva is a place in the open air where waters are collected to irrigate the land. Safaa Fathy filmed the reflections of the sky on the liquid surface at the pace of one second every half-hour, from morning to evening every day. Time passes and leaves its mark on fixed shots. The voice of Jacques Derrida reads a poem written by Safaa Fathy, translated from the Arabic by Zeinad Zaza and Derrida himself. Between sound and image, interior and exterior, this film invites us to travel in the density of time.