An unmissable classic, Marker’s iconic film is a breed of travelogue that invites the viewer not just to far-flung locales, but into the very nature of images themselves. Letters from Marker’s stand-in, the fictitious Sandor Krasna, are narrated by a woman as a mélange of footage—some shot by Marker, some stock footage—unspools. Capturing daily life and rituals alike in Japan and Guinea-Bissau, the documentary unpacks the nature and inherent limitations of human memory.

DIRECTOR: Chris Marker. CAST: Alexandra Stewart (voice). 1983. 100 min. France. Color. English. 35mm.

All film screenings in The Path of the Cat: Chris Marker’s Centennial series are available here. 

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.