Discoveries from Belgium World Cinema

In this end of the year special, Joost Vandecasteele profiles himself as a correspondent of the only war everyone is involved in, including Aunt Trudy, namely the culture war. Prepare for sharp jokes, blunt insults and unnecessary outpourings.

In 2003 a group of volunteers rebuild an old movie theater and concert venue. This documentary zooms in on that venue and it's volunteers.

Fifty years ago, I immerse myself in the past which transports me to this lost paradise, where for five years I experienced absolute happiness. » Through old photos, words and drawings, my French grandmother and my father immerse themselves in Laos in the 70s. With all these scraps of memories, I try to understand who my grandfather Singkéo is, in questioning the notions of roots, attachment and family tearing.

Juliette Fleck is a young visual artist who lives between Évreux, Paris and Marseille. From hopes to disillusion, from galleys to fantasies, she takes us on the thunderous journey of her thoughts and her life as an artist.

Moise Katumbi Chapwe is an Italian Sephardic Jew on his father's side and a Congolese on his mother's side. He is the Congolese personality who most strongly symbolizes African revival. He is a businessman controlling many compagnies and, since the first democratic elections of the RDC Congo, he is the Governor of Katanga, a region as big as France and a veritable treasure house of raw materials. For many Africans, he represents the new providential politician, capable of raising the Katangans out of their poverty, in the manner of the biblical Moses, whences he draws inspiration. Moïse Katumbi is rich enough not to have to pillage his province, he regularly uses football and television to reinforce his popularity.

What does the world look like to people who can no longer see? What is there in this endless night, in this profound darkness, that we all imagine?

An animated graphic diary that reflects on how dependency, anxiety, friendship, loneliness, self-recognition, and family are perceived. Through panels and textures, the shory has a a conceptual narrative full of symbols. It follows the emotional trail of a process, which aims to purge an experience.

In 2023 the Institut de Droit International commemorated its 150th anniversary and launched a documentary about its history, featuring interviews with current members of the Institut.

Pascal Baes experiments with the reflecting feedback of a video projector in a meticulous interaction with a performance by his life companion Aï Suzuki. In post-processing, the images were digitally edited, which results in an expressionist, abstract study of the human body. With the help of various effects, Baes radically intervenes on the images, mutating shapes, penetrating textures and reconstructing his visual experiment into a psychedelic phantasm of the ‘corpus humanis’ and distorted sensuality. Demographical lines fuse together with shreds of human body and facial traits in a restless outburst of colour, lighting and movement, expanding in interaction with an electronic composition of sliding and lashing sounds into a claustrophobic experience.

On their way to meet The Blues, the Oranges stop at a mysterious castle.

Mendhame stands out for its round and soft aesthetic, and for the tenderness of its protagonists who quickly become friends. A sisterhood relationship which will be the driving force of the film, pushing the little girl and the fairy to their limits to save each other from their loneliness and violence.

Portrait of Elaine, who wants to be frozen when she dies, in order to be woken up again in the future when technology has advanced.

In this story about self-development and identity, a little boy rebels against his parents. One day he feels a surge of power rushing through him as he crushes an ant out of frustration. He longs for more.

Fikri’s reality has become absurd. He finds himself in Belgium with a bipolar care-system. Still in survival state he trains to become a nurse and take care of Magritte.

A group of young non-actors, from Athens (Greece) yearn to forget their idle futures while playing in luxurious Airbnb's. Nevertheless their fate catching up with them.

The filmmaker attempts to understand the family's outlook and reaction to her sister's homosexuality. It's a journey towards her sister and towards herself. Along the way, she meets other Muslim homosexuals.

A documentary that invites us to escape our cages, to transform ourselves in soft fire… to burn and be reborn as many times as is necessary. It is the portrait of a transformagical person evolving in a society where bodies are trapped by laws.

Morgen observes young individuals. An insight into their microcosm, looking at how they spend their time while together or alone.

December 5, 1957. London is once again being held hostage by a thick pea soup fog. The ever reliable Bus 11 drags itself through the horrible weather when Eddie Adams gets on. Publicly he is known as a brilliant researcher at the University of London, but unbeknownst to the rest of the world he is a Soviet spy. On the bus his boss is waiting for him: Jerry Gerard, who expects a piece of critical information. A meeting is about to take place.

Up in the sky, the sun, and another sun, the other’s double. A simple superimposition invokes with all its strength the imaginary and poetics of anticipation, raising, at the same time, the problem of the double. What does the supreme singular represent for our culture of mass reproduction?

The video shows women nurturing each other and a baby. We see fish and other marine creatures, a sauna, the autumn sea – contrasts of heat and cold. The gallery were it is screened is heated to resemble human body temperature. Prouvost’s piece harks back to the pre-linguistic beginnings of human life, a time of metamorphosis, when touch and sound are primary. How would it feel to be a baby again? Or to swim in the sea like a fish? The artist reminds us of our watery origins: the slender-tailed sperm evolves into a fish-like embryo and finally into a human infant.

From the music of Belgian composer Dirk Brossé, Belgian filmmaker Meltse Van Coillie peers into a world of men and pigeons who are behaving strangely, who are sleepy, who enjoy the quietude of the country, who are waiting for something. What are they waiting for? And who is looking at who? Who is threatening who? This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

An improvised concert in a cemetery attracts a whole bunch of lovely people to the party.

A single part of a three channel work, called Here, Her, Heart, Hovers depicts a young girl engaged in shadow play. A plain white sheet is all that stands between her and her grandmother, to whom she describes an ever-evolving world and everything what has come to pass in a lifetime. In witnessing from a place of childlike wonder, what starts in innocence quickly escalates to something more shrewd and disorienting.

"This iconoclastic film, midway between fiction and documentary, explores the "over-sacred" side of Jerusalem. A political gamble for its inhabitants, a myth for its visitors, Jerusalem remains a universal object of desire that borders on fetishism. The film takes its inspiration from the Jerusalem Syndrome, a psychiatric syndrome, officially recognised in the 19th century, and from which the pilgrims and tourists that visited the Holy City suffered. A camera visits Jerusalem looking for a new approach to show the city. In parallel a young boy wanders the streets and discovers one night a prostitute with golden breasts. The boy, as does the camera, becomes a victim of a violently feminine Jerusalem." - DAfilms

The words of my mother tells the daily life of a woman who loses her words. At her side, her three children, each in their own way, watch over her, punctuate and reorganize her daily life. To move her out of her house, which she has lived in for 40 years, would be to break her down. It carries within it the strata of a history, of a territory. The house, the barn, the stream, the trees are still landmarks, in a space which, every day, closes in a little more.

Robert does not like going to bed as he thinks there are monsters in his room, hiding in the dark. His mother leaves the landing light on and his door ajar. But that does not stop the little boy’s imagination from conjuring up his deepest fears! Fortunately, he has his teddy bear to help him...

In the Grand Sinterklaas Show 2021, Samson and Marie will receive a camera so that they can take pictures of their new friends and paste them in the Big Friends Book of Studio 100 between the fans who have dressed up in a character and images of current and discarded Studio 100 figurines . But Bumba makes sure that turns out wrong. By playing a joke, the device will be broken. Result: Samson, Marie and Bumba end up in the list of naughty children in the book of Sinterklaas. However, Marie had asked for help. The Night Watch could not assist her in making the device, but they tipped that grandpa Fonkel might know what to do with it. And look, that's how the three get off the Sinterklaas blacklist, thanks to Mega Mindy.

A marriage falling apart.

A story about a pilot, a captain, a machinist, a driver, a mailman, a girl... and a giant box. What's in the box, the giant box that the pilot brought with him from a country, far, far away? Probably an elephant, the captain thinks, and very carefully he loads the box onto his ship. The ship hobbles and wobbles on the high seas. A strong gust breaks open the walls of the box creakingly. And what’s in the box? Another box!

During his interminable rounds up hill and down dale, Jean-Luc delivers to his clients the bread he makes at night. The young baker, overwhelmed with work, has among his clients several unemployed people, who he takes time to listen to and advise. He looks for the right words to encourage the most resigned, and calm those who, at their wits’ end, use him to vent their anger. The film sometimes follows the efforts of the unemployed with the administration, sometimes their clash with the functionaries, who ask them to prove their family composition.

The first part of a Magritte portrait, mainly compiled from fragments of staged enactments of situations, which Magritte recorded with, among others, Georgette Magritte, Paul Colinet, Irène Hamoir and Scutenaire, playfully described by the latter as "une histoire érotico-fantastico-iconoclaste".

From a fixed point of view, we witness a tense bus ride in Brussels, when Samuel – a Congolese immigrant – gets on to voice his discontent with Europe.

A young Filipino filmmaker spends his winter with a naturist in Lisbon. As the sunless days continue, the two find light in each other’s company.

The nature described today is incredibly diverse and varied and struggles to fit human labels. There are thousands of cases of homosexual birds, transgender fish, non-binary animals, polyamorous families... So what's happened? Has our outlook changed? Why and how? Queerying nature interweaves the words of philosopher Vinciane Despret, artists Camille Pier and Gwen Seemel, and biologists and ethnologists to explode the idea of a sexual or gender norm. Nature is far more queer than we are!

William plays the freeloader at receptions and tries to keep up appearances... until he meets Anne-Claire, an executive on the verge of burnout. For one evening, William draws her into his world, even if that means exposing his desires and weaknesses.

Witold works in a bank during the day but at night, he is building an electro-psychic waves generator. When he tests it, he makes contact with the cannibal nurse and with aliens. This will change his life.

Aurore decides to have a photoshoot to restore her self-confidence. The image she has of herself complicates when her teenage daughter comes home early.

A young woman wakes up, still drunk, during a party. While she tries to flee from her memories, she finds herself in a waking nightmare.

A journey to the sea through the ex-votos of the South of France. A dive into the life of 19th century sailors and its dangers. The evolution of their beliefs towards a society where religion is erased by pragmatism.

In a society where sex work is punishable but tolerated, the law is hypocritical. During the health crisis, sew workers and students had been forgotten. André is a student who minimises sex work taboos and depends on it to survive.

Documentary on the annual report, between 1941 and 1942, of Winter Aid, a national-socialist organisation that took over all social assistance works during World War Two.

A film about the footwear industry in Belgium.

Haunted by the sudden death of her grandfather and the lack of images she has of him, the filmmaker goes on a quest for tenderness in Brussels, a city that is not hers. During her short journey, she meets Ildib, an old and lonely man who spends his time watching people from a cafe in her neighborhood.

'Great To Know You - a documentary' is an intimate behind-the-scenes portrait of Milow's most recent album 'Nice To Meet You' and the ‘Great To Know You EP’, featuring live studio footage and interviews with those who know him best. The documentary examines the close bond that Milow has with his fans and for the first time gives a glimpse of his personal life, as an example, revealing that he has 2 young children. In 'Great To Know You' the viewer discovers why Milow chooses to sing and talk about his personal life. The death of his drummer Oscar Kraal forced Milow to shift his focus and allow his private life more clearly into his songs. The film was made by Lieven Bulckens, a childhood friend of Milow, and that personal connection brings the viewer close to the singer-songwriter's creative process and his life in Belgium and Los Angeles.

In Oliena, Sardinia, local legends seem to have disappeared from people’s memories. But the songs, the olive trees, and the fires of San Giovanni evoke them powerfully. Filmmaker Myriam Raccah thus decides to re-enact some of these stories with the help of the villagers, creating a marvellous fresco that unleashes the magic of storytelling and cinema.

Shortfilm about a close friendship between two queer friends that comes under tension due to blind narcissism.

Sixtine is 19 years old and wants to get sterilized. In order to start the process, she must write a letter to the child that she will never have, and challenge her deepest convictions.

1 MTH/MIN is a reflection on space-time in film. Each image represents a 24-hour scan taken daily from 21 March to 21 June. Through a window giving onto the landscape, we watch spring unfold: trees in bloom, changing weather conditions, the days growing longer until the summer solstice

Several women in their seasonal work as fire watchers in Portugal. The film comes close to their breathing, to the passing of time and to solitude, from within.