Absence
Isabelle Bouttens
A room with a balcony. The sun is shining. A woman misses a man.
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Film Archive
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Absence
Animated Film
Belgium
2006
10 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
A room with a balcony. The sun is shining. A woman misses a man. In her dreams the long shadows on the floor and walls are transformed into arms that hug her. A hand touches her hip and gently caresses her body. Fingers interlace with hers and subtly and quietly a body lures her into a dance. A poetic and sensual film about absence.
Duscha Kistler
Duscha Kistler
Absolute Beginners
Fabrizio Terranova
A delicate and very touching film about the art of consciously feeling and enjoying life despite a fatal disease that changes everything. Carpe diem.
Absolute Beginners
If you’re not affected you have probably never heard of Huntington’s disease. But the hereditary genetic defect changes absolutely everything: the ability to control one’s body, contact with one’s soul, moods and emotions, the level of available energy … and last but not least the relationships with loved ones. There is no cure to date, but a test to find out before the outbreak of the disease whether you carry this genetic mutation.
The six people who very emotionally and honestly talk about their lives here have all tested positive, though they are at different stages of the disease. For fear of social ostracism, some of them only speak anonymously in front of the camera. Not all of them are ready yet to “show face” and admit to having the disease, which to outsiders often looks like severe dementia or a mental handicap, although every one of the persons who offer insights here impressively disproves such popular misunderstandings. What emerges clearly is that, when faced with incurable disease, we are always also faced with the question of how we can integrate the risk of mortality into our concept of life. Upon closer examination, though, this philosophical problem concerns each of us. A cinematic carpe diem and an ode to life.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
The six people who very emotionally and honestly talk about their lives here have all tested positive, though they are at different stages of the disease. For fear of social ostracism, some of them only speak anonymously in front of the camera. Not all of them are ready yet to “show face” and admit to having the disease, which to outsiders often looks like severe dementia or a mental handicap, although every one of the persons who offer insights here impressively disproves such popular misunderstandings. What emerges clearly is that, when faced with incurable disease, we are always also faced with the question of how we can integrate the risk of mortality into our concept of life. Upon closer examination, though, this philosophical problem concerns each of us. A cinematic carpe diem and an ode to life.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
After the Silence
Sonam Larcin
How do coming out and applying for asylum fit together? Better than feared in this film by Sonam Larcin. The story of a slow arrival, in warm tones and tender gestures.
After the Silence
“Tell me your story” – a request that should please anyone. A difficult one, though, when it’s directed at a young man in a Brussels office who is looking for asylum and has never admitted his homosexuality to anyone in his entire life. But it may also be an opportunity. And a good premise for telling the story in front of a film camera. A film about a slow arrival, in warm tones and tender gestures.
Silvia Hallensleben
Silvia Hallensleben
And Arnaud
Thomas Damas
What’s wrong with Arnaud, Thomas Damas wonders, as he is making a film with and about his alcoholic brother. The camera is meant to help him point out things. But what if it suddenly points back?
And Arnaud
A film as an occasion to get closer to someone. In this case, that someone is the director’s brother, Arnaud, who seems to have gotten on the wrong track quite a while ago and has developed an alcohol problem. It affects everything from gay parties with friends to getting pissed on his own in public, on the riverbank, through to lonely sessions in the flat. “We do a thing about me, but what about you?” Arnaud once asks in a drunken stupor.
Carolin Weidner
Carolin Weidner
Appunti del passaggio
Maria Iorio, Raphaël Cuomo
Immigrant workers in 1965: from contemporary witness reports emerges the narrative of an Italian woman who becomes an “outlaw working body” in Switzerland. Poetic fragment of a humiliation.
Appunti del passaggio
Documentary Film
Belgium,
Italy,
Switzerland
2016
44 minutes
subtitles:
English
“I have no visual memory. I remember emotions.” In their remarkably artistically dense documentary Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo combine various statements of contemporary witnesses into the personal report of an Italian who entered Switzerland in 1965 as a migrant labourer. At the core of this representative of many economic refugees from Southern Europe of the time lies the feeling that she is an “outlaw working body”. She feels humiliated and controlled by procedures at the “border health check”, by massive underpay, dangerous working conditions, psychological pressure in the factory and openly expressed, wounding resentment against the foreigners.
The film is a collage of memories given a voice by a female narrator and kept deliberately vague on the visual level. Vague, but extremely effective and openly sceptical about the reality promised by visual evidence. Besides distorted details and negatives of a few surviving photos it’s the restful contemporary video recordings, for example of an abandoned building with all the traces of use, which offer a suitable poetic space to the narrator’s audio report and a voice performance.
André Eckardt
The film is a collage of memories given a voice by a female narrator and kept deliberately vague on the visual level. Vague, but extremely effective and openly sceptical about the reality promised by visual evidence. Besides distorted details and negatives of a few surviving photos it’s the restful contemporary video recordings, for example of an abandoned building with all the traces of use, which offer a suitable poetic space to the narrator’s audio report and a voice performance.
André Eckardt
Arakabus
collective
Carola likes Killian, Akhénatin admires Louna. But it’s not easy to approach the other when you don’t have cool clothes and the latest smartphone.
Carola likes Killian, Akhénatin admires Louna. But it’s not easy to approach the other when you don’t have cool clothes and the latest smartphone. The directors know what they’re talking about: this film was made by 14 teenagers from Belgium.
Ayan and the White Balloon
Vida Dena
After five years in exile in Europe the director returns to Iran to make a film. She asks her friends to act in it. What starts as a game during the shoot gradually turns into a brutal clash between those who stayed and the one who left.
Ayan and the White Balloon
Documentary Film
Belgium,
Iran
2015
26 minutes
subtitles:
English
Hiding: behind masks, the white balloon, a fiction. The fears run deep. After five years in exile in Europe the director returns to Iran to make a film. She asks her friends to act in it. What starts as a game during the shoot gradually turns into a brutal clash between those who stayed and the one who left. Who has the prerogative of interpretation? What is a stereotype, what does the West want to see, what do the Iranians want to reveal about themselves?
Cornelia Klauß
Cornelia Klauß
Belle de nuit – Grisélidis Réal, Self Portraits
Marie-Eve de Grave
Multifaceted reflections of Grisélidis Réal, prostitute, artist, writer and feminist pioneer, in personal writings and encounters. A revolutionary whore and a great work.
Belle de nuit – Grisélidis Réal, Self Portraits
Revolution, mind, body, dream. These are the dimensions between which the prostitute and artist Grisélidis Réal moved all her life. Radical in her desires and debased by the wounds of the night she started to write about herself and her experiences in the 1960s, creating a body of work that speaks from the perspective and understanding of a woman who knows no fear and is ready to take any risk.
Grisélidis Réal transformed prostitution into art; director Marie-Eve de Grave transformed her life into a documentary of narrative grandeur. Diary entries, literary sketches, drawings, an address book, archive material, photos, interviews with important companions like the French writer Jean-Luc Hennig form the structure of a dramaturgy in which the different facets of her life are observed as if through a prism and summed up in one word: indomitable. At the same time the film is a journey into a past in which the social debate of sexuality had only just started and anything seemed possible. In 2009, four years after she died, Grisélidis was granted an honorary grave in Geneva, approved by the municipality – right next to the god-fearing reformer Johannes Calvin. Belated satisfaction for a revolutionary whore.
Matthias Heeder
Grisélidis Réal transformed prostitution into art; director Marie-Eve de Grave transformed her life into a documentary of narrative grandeur. Diary entries, literary sketches, drawings, an address book, archive material, photos, interviews with important companions like the French writer Jean-Luc Hennig form the structure of a dramaturgy in which the different facets of her life are observed as if through a prism and summed up in one word: indomitable. At the same time the film is a journey into a past in which the social debate of sexuality had only just started and anything seemed possible. In 2009, four years after she died, Grisélidis was granted an honorary grave in Geneva, approved by the municipality – right next to the god-fearing reformer Johannes Calvin. Belated satisfaction for a revolutionary whore.
Matthias Heeder
Big Wolf & Little Wolf
Rémi Durin
The big wolf leads a contented life. Until one fine morning the little wolf turns up and moves in with him.
Big Wolf & Little Wolf
The big wolf leads a contented life: He reads books under his tree, grumbles over bills and listens to music, quite undisturbed. Until one fine morning the little wolf turns up and moves in with him. The little wolf listens to his records, turns the newspaper into paper planes and, to top it all, snores. The big wolf doesn’t need this kind of companionship. Or does he?
Marie-Thérèse Antony
Marie-Thérèse Antony
Blow Up My Town
Chantal Akerman
The work of a director who wasn’t even sure whether she had what it takes to be a director before this work.
Blow Up My Town
Documentary Film
Belgium
1968
13 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Chantal Akerman
René Fruchter
Geneviève Luciani
Chantal Akerman
A fine specimen of a bold film. The work of a director who wasn’t even sure whether she had what it takes to be a director before this work.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
Braise
Hugo Frassetto
A young man at a party is seduced by a beautiful woman. As the others are watching the couple they start to talk.
Braise
Animated Film
Belgium,
France
2013
7 minutes
subtitles:
English
A young man at a party is seduced by a beautiful woman. As the others are watching the couple they start to talk.
Bully Beef
Wendy Morris
An attempt to reunite two stories that are still neatly separated in the public discourse: the German occupation of Belgium in the First World War and the Belgian colonisation of the Congo in the 19th century. ...
An attempt to reunite two stories that are still neatly separated in the public discourse: the German occupation of Belgium in the First World War and the Belgian colonisation of the Congo in the 19th century. While one is taught at schools and universities as a matter of course, the other rarely makes it into the curriculum – even historiography has its hierarchies. The bracket for both is “Bully Beef”, the canned beef that became the proverbial soldiers’ rations.
Butoyi
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
Butoyi is a brilliant student. But while her brothers go to school she has to stay at home and help her mom. She dreams of education and independence, but how can a dream like that come true if society does not change?
Butoyi
Credits
Jean-Luc Slock
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
YOYA
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
Simon Medard, Louise-Marie Colon
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
Ruth Nduwimana, Adelphine Hatangimana, Jeannette Irakoze, Rose Tangishaka, Gracienne Ndericimpaye, Sophia Ndayishimiye, Délice Hacimana, Ange Izerimana, Claudine Mpwenimana, Médiatrice Niyirema, Elizabeth Mpawenimana, Nesta Nimfasha
Butoyi is a brilliant student. But while her brothers go to school she has to stay at home and help her mom. She dreams of education and independence, but how can a dream like that come true if society does not change? Made by twelve girls from Burundi in a workshop organised by the Belgium based association Camera-etc.
Cash Register 9
Anna Heuninck
Olga works as a supermarket cashier. Her life is monotonous and she is bored. A surprising event briefly disturbs her routine.
Cash Register 9
Animated Film
Belgium
2013
8 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Olga works as a supermarket cashier. Her life is monotonous and she is bored. A surprising event briefly disturbs her routine.
Charleroi, the Land of 60 Mountains
Guy-Marc Hianant
The portrait of a city against the backdrop of a past that no longer exists and a future that hasn’t taken shape yet. An essayist-poetical large-scale experiment.
Charleroi, the Land of 60 Mountains
Charleroi, former centre of the Western European coal and steel industry. Once also a stronghold of plate glass production. For a long time this was a city on the sidelines, but now it has arrived in the middle of structural change, which, however, as the term suggests, is only provisional again. How is the spirit of community expressed today? Is it articulated on a temporal or spatial level? Horizontal or vertical? Is it athletic or rather artistic? Does it live in the built environment or in the faces and bodies of its inhabitants? Perhaps it’s just a complicated mixture? Or a complicated simplicity?
The Belgian writer, publisher, music producer and filmmaker Guy-Marc Hinant is a professed native “Carolorégien.” And he has set out to compose a complex portrait of his city. Poetic local knowledge with an enormous wingspan. Great events and tiny blind spots, and sometimes one in the other. All in all, an itinerary in the form of an essay along the director’s personal mythology.
Ralph Eue
The Belgian writer, publisher, music producer and filmmaker Guy-Marc Hinant is a professed native “Carolorégien.” And he has set out to compose a complex portrait of his city. Poetic local knowledge with an enormous wingspan. Great events and tiny blind spots, and sometimes one in the other. All in all, an itinerary in the form of an essay along the director’s personal mythology.
Ralph Eue
Chez Jolie Coiffure
Rosine Mbakam
The “Jolie” hairdresser’s shop in the Brussels Matonge quarter is a meeting place for African women. They come here to have their hair cut, but also to organise and discuss things and to flirt.
Chez Jolie Coiffure
Credits
Geoffroy Cernaix, Rosine Mbakam
Rosine Mbakam
Rosine Mbakam
Geoffroy Cernaix
Rosine Mbakam, Loïc Villiot
Have Rosine come in and don’t let her leave her stuff outside – people really behave like junkies. Rosine follows the invitation, enters and is now an official guest of the tiny “Jolie” hairdressing salon in the Matonge district of Brussels. The women who work and are served here come from Africa. They tell stories of fake passports and escape routes via Libya, Syria or Greece, of families left behind, Belgian men and complicated relationships. The place is like an aquarium. Coloured and dark strands of hair that resemble octopuses are brushed and braided. The shop has glass walls, the sounds of the shopping mall frequently drift in, the door opens and there’s a brief flirtation with a man. In between, the eyelash lengthening glue burns on the lid and a Tontine named “The Glowworms” is founded, a widespread financial tool of solidarity-based economy. The Salon serves as a real and metaphorical link between Africa and Europe. At the same time it is a protective space and a home. Rosine Mbakam, a native of Cameroon herself, came to Belgium in 2007 to study film. This is her second feature-length film as a director.
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for the Healthy Workplaces Film Award
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for the Healthy Workplaces Film Award
