In Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, about a woman caring for her dying friend, the author references Belgian director Chantal Akerman’s 2015 documentary No Home Movie. Nunez writes, “Akerman documented conversations with her mother during the last months of her mother’s life. We should all be great filmmakers.” It’s a line that feels particularly striking now that two of Nunez’s novels are being adapted for the screen.