Henri Storck

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

A lonely young widow lives with her son following an immutable order: while the boy is in school, she cares for their apartment, does chores, and receives clients in the afternoon.

Outside the Border of the Camera

A montage of images from newsreels; Storck's edit contains comical, poignant, even chilling juxtapositions.

Herman Teirlinck

A portrait of the belgian writer Herman Teirlinck by Henri Storck.

Pilgrimage to Hell

Biopic about Father Damian and his life and work on the island of Molokai.

Zero for Conduct

In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the director on a celebration day.

Borinage

Henri Storck and Joris Ivens’ landmark of social documentary, blending staged scenes with locals and on-the-spot reportage to depict the 1932 miners’ strike in Belgium’s Borinage—evictions, hunger, and police repression—transforming outrage into a call for solidarity.

Rubens

This surreal abstract film falls into three sections, or movements, the first taking place on the ground, the second in the air and the third again on the ground. In the first movement various motifs or themes are introduced, which are again picked up and developed in the third movement. Six spheres, evolved in the first movement, become the sole subject matter–or “dancers”–of the second movement, which consists of a simple type of ballet using the floor-plan choreography or traditional ballet as a basis of interest.

Wonderen van het Afrikaanse Woud

For their film “Vrijheren van het Woud” (Lords of the Forest) uit 1958, Heinz Sielmann and Henry Brandt had collected over 6 kilometers of film footage. In 1968, Henri Storck went through the unused material and turned it into a 90-minute documentary. Once again, it presents a highly realistic and naturalistic portrayal of the fauna, flora, and people of Central Africa. The Dutch version was released with commentary by Pros Verbruggen

Peasant Symphony

From 1942 to 1944, Henri Storck composed his Symphonie paysanne, in which he describes the day to day life and rituals of the farmers on the rhythm of the seasons. The film is a poem to nature, a lyrical masterpiece on life and death, on animals and plants, on man and his labour.

Daytrippers

A silent seaside vignette from Henri Storck: weekenders (“day-trippers”) descend on the Belgian coast for brief escape—bathing huts, crowds, and playful beach routines rendered in quick, observational fragments.

Feesten in België

Henri Storck: “The General Commissariat for Tourism had organized a ‘Year of Folklore’ and, on that occasion, asked me to make a series of films devoted exclusively to this form of popular culture.” 1.Carnaval van Oostende - 2.Vastenavond te Aalst - 3.Carnaval van Malmédy - 4.Straattoneel in Malmédy - 5.De Gilles van Binche - 6.Meiboomplanting en Passiespel door de marionetten van Toone in Brussel - 7.Heilige Bloedprocessie in Brugge - 8.De 'witte Moussis' van Stavelot en de kermis van Bergen - 9.Passiespel in Lessen en Ligny. Halfoogst-feesten in Outre-Meuse (Luik) - 10.De Chinels van Fisse-la-Ville. De 'Grootjes' van La Louvière. Het ontploiffen van Kruipotten in Luik.

Henri Storck, ooggetuige

Robbe de Hert’s Henri Storck, ooggetuige (1986) is a brilliant cinematic homage to the founding father of Belgian documentary cinema. Filmed around Storck’s 80th birthday, the film eschews standard biographical formulas. Instead, De Hert crafts an intelligent, vibrant collage that synthesizes rare archival footage with intimate anecdotes told by Storck himself.The documentary excels at tracing Storck’s evolution from an Ostend avant-garde poet to a fierce social activist. De Hert’s signature rebellious tone shines through in bold creative choices, such as overlaying John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" onto the silent, gritty footage of Misère au Borinage (1933). This creates a powerful bridge between 1930s labor struggles and modern social critique

Summer by the Sea

A lyrical promotion of Belgium’s North Sea coast that alternates teeming promenades and playful beach games with elegant seafront vistas; shot by John Fernhout and set to Marcel Poot’s score, with commentary by Éric de Haulleville.

The Open Window

One of the first European films commissioned by the countries that signes the Brussels treaty and filmed in the museums of Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Ghent and The Hague. The film shows, by means of 59 works of art, how painting discovered the landscape once it left the strictly religious context behind. Henri storck wrote, "We have tried to eliminate the artificiality of filming. We have tried to hide the camera in order to immerse the audience in the world of the painting and the landscape that it depicts. We want the viewer to discover the feeling of nature for himself, through the artists.... It is not our ambition to make a critical or informative work." This iconic journey from Bosch to Manet and Turner is accompanied by music by Georges Auric.

Vacances

This trailer for the pleasures of living between La Panne and Le Zoute testifies to the post-1936 euphoria that came with paid holidays, with sun and rest for everybody.

Paul Delvaux or the Forbidden Women

The second part of "Le monde de Paul Delvaux" (1944/1946)

Dainah the Mixed

After three weeks and a long, hot voyage across the Pacific, an ocean liner finally arrives at its destination, Ecuador. That evening, the event is marked by a masked ball and a magic show.

Meeting of Artists

A family film, a short summer film, made to record the joy of being together. But what a family! Léon Spilliaert, Paul Delvaux, Edgar Tytgat and his wife Maria, Luc and Paul Haessaerts. A garden, some seats and a camera that films the group of friends. They talk (given all the jollity, laughter and gestures seen it is a shame that it is a silent film). A period document only a few minutes long, a witness that puts names to faces, a reminder of a sunny afternoon. Emotion that loses itself in the moment.

Thursday We Shall Sing Like Sunday

A bitter-sweet story of a young sales assistant and a truck driver trapped between their dreams and the economic depression.

Smuggler's Ball

Smuggler's Ball is the English-language title for this French-Belgian seriocomedy. The action takes place along the borders separating Belgium, Holland and France. It is here that the worldly Pierre (J. P. Kieran) carries on a profitable smuggling operation, all the while romancing Siska (Christian Lenier), the daughter of a local customs official. Various subplots and secondary characters weave in and out as the plotline guides the viewer through the WW II years. Towards the end, the story shifts gears when the Benelux Frontier Agreement eliminates all government regulations. The film's screenplay is by Charles Spaak, himself the descendant of a Belgian political family, and thus well-versed in bureaucracy and red tape.

Houses of Poverty

Henri Storck’s militant short on Depression-era Belgium, set in Walloon slums on the outskirts of a prosperous city. Staged vignettes expose substandard housing, overcrowding, and numbed survival through claustrophobic, frame-filling images; a coda on slum clearance and “garden city” rehousing offers guarded hope.

Le Trois-Mâts Mercator

Ieper - Middelburg - Arras

Documentary directed by Henri Storck. The film follows several groups of tourists on a visit to different sites in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The groups tours with buses of the Ostend Department of British Travel (British Traval Office Ostend).

Pleasure Trips

The beach and the bathers, poses and gestures. A series of sketches and portraits, little touches that build up into a wry, affectionate portrait of a Sunday at the beach.