May
Sarah Maldoror and Miguel Littin. These were, fittingly, the key figures of May. Maldoror was the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and Littin the focus of a single screening at Light Industry. Like Watkins, both filmmakers’ careers reflect an ironclad commitment to art and politics. Though I caught a mere three screenings from the Maldoror retrospective, each film included in said screenings demonstrated the Guadeloupean-French director’s restless curiosity as a filmmaker, as well as her lifelong commitment to detailing the lives of kindred artists across the world. Her filmography represents a bottomless well of wonders and I regret not making more time for her this year.
On the other hand, Light Industry’s presentation of Littin’s The Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969) jump-started my ongoing mission to watch all of his films. (Thankfully, most of them have been digitized and made available online thanks to Chile’s National Cinematheque.) I have yet to be disappointed.