“Blissful...a pleasure to watch”
-Elvis Mitchell, NEW YORK TIMES

The most ambitious cinematic project ever undertaken about a world-class philosopher, DERRIDA (co-directed with Amy Ziering) is a complex personal and theoretical portrait of the internationally renowned French philosopher, Jacques Derrida. Best known for generating a movement known as "deconstruction", Derrida's radical rethinking of the founding precepts of Western metaphysics has profoundly influenced the fields of literature, philosophy, ethics, architecture and law, inalterably transforming the intellectual landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries. Filmed over five years across several continents, DERRIDA is far from a talking heads movie or conventional biographical portrait. A complex and reflexive work that attempts both to capture its protagonist and be a cooperative venture with him, the film’s bold, visual style, mesmerizing score by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and novel editorial approach create a rich, lively cinematic experience, which simultaneously provokes, amuses and entertains. Interlacing rare verite footage of Derrida in his private life with his reflections on deconstruction, violence, the structure of love, filmmaking, and the death of his mother, the film becomes a rich and moving meditation on both Derrida himself and the themes that haunt and inspire his work.

WINNER - GOLDEN GATE AWARD - 2002 San Francisco Film Festival

“Absolutely first-rate…the cinematic equivalent of a mind-expanding drug.”
-Kenneth Turan, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Turns the seams of the filmmaking process inside out...inspirational and unexpectedly moving.”
-Rachel Rosen, FILM COMMENT

“Potent and profound”
-Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

“Seldom has a movie so closely matched the spirit of a man and his work.”
-Kirk Honeycutt, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Distributors:
Zeigeist Films, United States
Haut Et Court, France
ICA, United Kingdom
Real Fiction, Germany

US Premiere: 2002 Sundance Film Festival
International Premiere: 2002 Locarno Film Festival