Babette Mangolte

Life and career

Mangolte was born and raised in France and moved to New York City in 1970. She attended L'Ecole Nationale de la Photographie et de la Cinematographie, graduating in 1966. Her move to New York was prompted by a disillusionment with the French film industry's male dominated climate, and an interest in experimental works by American filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage. In the 1970s she began documenting the performance works of notable choreographers such as Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, David Gordon, and Yvonne Rainer. During this time, she also collaborated with director Chantal Akerman. Together they made several films, the most notable of which are Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and News from Home (1977). Mangolte shot her first feature, L'Automne, in 1970, which was directed by Marcel Hanoun.

Mangolte credits Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929) as the film that made her decide to become a cinematographer.

Seeing the film several times between 1961 and 1964 led me to apply to film school, giving up on the predictability of an academic life in mathematics for a life of uncertainty and adventure. In the 1960s, women and film cameras just didn’t mix and I was warned against pursuing my dream. But Utopia and joie de vivre were at the core of Man with a Movie Camera and I was unafraid.

She is known for her experimental film-making, which is influenced by the French New Wave and Structural Film. She has made many films of dancers and performance artists, along with several documentaries and narrative films. Her films include both short and feature length. Her most recent film is Seven Easy Pieces (2007), a documentary of the performance artist Marina Abramović.

She is a professor at University of California, San Diego.

Filmography

Directed, produced, photographed or edited by Babette Mangolte