Ruben Desiere

A poetic essay film on the colonial gaze and the magic lantern. This early type of image projector was used in Belgian colonial propaganda, showcasing the good works of the Church, State and industry. Lantern projections were an effective way of selling the colonial project to a somewhat reluctant Belgian public.

While dancing, bees tell each other stories about the world around them. People also claim a role in those stories, sometimes very close and intimate, sometimes distant and on an industrial scale. Nina de Vroome's thoughts also swarm with the bees: from the smallest cell in a honeycomb to the global economy, her essayistic nature documentary Globes charts the bond between humans and bees. As accomplished storytellers, they both give shape to their lives under the sun.

Up until November 2013, the Gesu convent in Brussels was home to around 250 people including a number of Roma families originating from Slovakia. Over the months leading up to their impending eviction, Ruben Desiere worked with a number of the inhabitans to create a film. Kosmos is loosely based on the book of the same name by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz. It focuses on the family of Kevin Mroc who had been living at Gesu for three years, and also features two newcomers, Mizu Balasz en Rastjo Vano.

After graduation, Billie and Lucas are faced with big decisions: move in together as a couple or rather share a flat with friends? Full of affection for each other and curiosity about what’s to come, they feel their way forward, together and individually.

In the back room of a flower shop, Tomi, Rasto and Mižu are digging a tunnel in order to break into the safe of the National Bank. After heavy rainfall, the underground maze gets submerged by water and they are forced to stop working.

Some kids in Brussels play a game based upon objects that were brought back from the Congo and which were used during the Hutereau expedition.

Under the tutelage of commander Walter Van Dyck, young recruits of the Belgian Armed Forces receive their basic military training. By means of role-play, an image of their future as professional soldiers steadily appears. Echo meticulously documents this intentional metamorphosis, in which subjects are instructed in a new way of looking, listening and thinking.

Mitten follows the final weeks of rehearsal of Mitten wir im Leben sind, the performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The film offers an intimate glance into De Keersmaeker’s meticulous methodology, in which a choreographic universe is built up through a careful study of musical composition. This intense creative process of continuously reshaping and honing, characterised by De Keersmaeker’s inexhaustible longing for precision and detail, is reflected in the filmmakers’ patient look at the work of the choreographer, the musician and dancers.