Chantal Akerman Professions : Film director Born : June 6, 1950 Died : October 5, 2015 Browse All Authors Top 28 quotes by Chantal Akerman I never felt that I belonged. When I was at school... First I went to a Jewish school, when I was very little. But when I was 12, they put me in a school with a lot of traditions, and they were educated people and they were talking about Greece and the Parthenon and I don't know what. Chantal Akerman never me people school My mother arrived in Brussels in 1938 from a small town near Krakow. But strangely enough, in 1942 or 1943, she was taken back to Auschwitz, which was just 30 miles from where she grew up. Her parents died there and a lot of her family. Chantal Akerman parents small family mother I am from a woman's family. My great-grandmother had three daughters and a son. My grandmother had two daughters, and my mother had two daughters. My sister had a daughter and then finally a son. You should have seen my father with the son. He could not believe that finally there was a boy in the family. Chantal Akerman family daughter mother son I realized that my mother was at the center of my work, because now that my mother is no longer there, there's nobody left. Chantal Akerman nobody now mother work My grandparents were very well-educated people, but in the Jewish tradition. They knew everything about the Bible. And then they had to come to Brussels, to run away from Poland, because there was too much anti-Semitism. They lost everything they had. Chantal Akerman tradition lost bible people I grew up reading Proust all my life, and he's very dear to me. Chantal Akerman my-life me reading life I am a woman, and I am Jewish; I'm a film-maker, and I'm a writer, so you cannot just put me in one box. Chantal Akerman woman i-am me you My mother was totally different from the mothers of my friends. She would never separate from me. In a way, my life belongs to her. When I was a child, she complained that I was anorexic, so they sent me to places to get me to eat. When I look at pictures of myself, I was just a normal-looking child. It was her fantasy. Chantal Akerman myself me mother life Similar Authors Alex Graves film-director Brad Furman film-director Bryan Singer film-director Bruno Dumont film-director Bruce McDonald film-director Bruce Brown film-director All Authors