The Film Desk presents Chris Marker's photo-essay Le Dépays, published for the first time in an English language edition, and The Koumiko Mystery, Marker's enigmatic portrait of Tokyo filmed during the 1964 Olympics.

The peripatetic and famously elusive Marker created this film essay, his first account of Tokyo, during the Olympic games, acting as usual in the triple role of cameraman, scenarist, and editor. The tour of Tokyo is conducted by Koumiko Muraoka, a young Japanese woman the director claims to have discovered in the crowds at the games. Mixing elements of the city symphony—street scenes, neon signs, crowds, the monorail—with fragments of comic books and other cultural materials, Marker creates a rich portrait of modern-day Tokyo.

This is the first English language edition of Chris Marker’s 1982 photo-essay, Le Dépays. Lovingly adapted from the original design, it features Marker’s own translation astride some of his most exquisite, yet rarely seen, black-and-white photography. Realized over the same years as its film companion, Sans Soleil, the book traces similar themes—cats and owls and Japan—but without ever leaving Golden-Gai for Guinea-Bissau. Musing among department store maneki-neko and dreamers on the metro, wandering between Tokyo and no-place at all, this is nevertheless a unique glimpse of Marker feeling very much himself and quite at home; that is, delightfully disoriented.

Chris Marker, 1921–2012. Filmed, photographed, traveled, loved cats.

With a new introduction by writer and artist Sadie Rebecca Starnes.

Please note: seating is limited. Box Office opens thirty minutes prior to the listed showtime. Online ticket sales will be honored up until 15 minutes after the scheduled showtime. In-store ticket purchases are subject to availability, first-come, first-served. We do not operate a standby list.