I actually first discovered a lot of the films on this list, like News from Home, when I lived in New York, next to Kim’s Video, a time when I went a lot to Anthology Film Archives and Lincoln Center.

Chantal Akerman has always been a big inspiration for me, and News from Home was the first film of hers that I saw. Watching it was so inspiring and made me feel like I could make movies myself, because it’s so simply done yet so affecting—just letters and an empty city. I have a very strong relationship with my mother, and she also used to send me letters when I lived in New York. I discovered Jeanne Dielman later, and a lot of the screen tests I did for Invisible Life were taken from frames from that film.

I also discovered A Woman Under the Influence during this time in New York, and I was so touched by it. I’ve seen it many times, but I revisited it again during the filming of Invisible Life. It’s just a really complex portrait of a character who is at once a bit out of her mind and also so affectionate. It was important for me to have my actors see that film.