The Leather

Documentary on the rich historical past of Belgium, concerning its processions and its carnivals.

Promotional documentary about Belgian spa cities. The spas in Ostend, Spa and Chaudfontaine are shown, together with their nearby attractions.

‘A patchwork sewn together by a lunatic, God knows what sort of junk thrown together.’ This is how the irritated Renaat Braem characterised the Belgian landscape as seen from the air in his pamphlet ‘The ugliest country in the world’ (1968). Over the last half century, this sort of complaint about the lack of planning has alternated with resentment at the surfeit of spatial regulation on the part of the authorities. Film-makers have provided pictures to go with these divergent opinions. From Charles Dekeukeleire’s propaganda film disguised as a documentary, through Luc De Heusch’s documentary insert packaged as fiction, to the critical opinion pieces by Jef Cornelis.

Traditional manual and individual work vs. modern machine and mass production in the context of social development and quality of life.

Charles Dekeukeleire, then a questioning Catholic, was spurred into making this documentary on a pilgrimage with the Catholic Young Workers’ Movement. The director’s approach is one of critical reflection; A film emotional and fervent, even acerbic.

A visual travel diary on the expedition led by Brondeel in 1934. This expedition to Belgian Congo, by truck, became a testimony to the social conditions of Africans during the colonial era.

Short documentary on the wool industry.

Two journalists drop by the Waterloo studios, where a director shows them a rough cut of a pacifist film. In it, a botched atomic test in Belgium creates a clay cloud that spreads world peace, causing stock markets to crash and weapons manufacturers to lose their jobs.The journalists roast the movie for being unrealistic, but the director defends it as a wake-up call to maintain peace. Afterward, they tour the studios, giving a cool look behind the scenes.

A documentary about flowers.

When a wanderer arrives in a village in the East Flanders countryside, strange events begin to unfold. The villagers, unsettled by his presence, come to believe he is an evil spirit. In truth, he is searching for his long-lost lover. Years ago, the two of them had committed a terrible crime: the killing of an illegitimate child. They had then planned to end their own lives by drowning. Yet the wanderer failed to keep his part of the pact and survived the suicide attempt. Ever since, he has been desperately seeking the woman he once loved, haunted by the past that refuses to let him go.

Short documentary tracking the installation of oil infrastructure in Antwerp.

A documentary about urbanisation.

This story is built up with filmed documents in an experimental fashion.

An avant-garde montage of a boxing match, based on a poem by Paul Werrie.