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FLANDERSIMAGe E Issue #03 l Fall 2005 l 3.50

FienFien Troch'sTroch's HAPPINESSHAPPINESS S.O.I.L.S.O.I.L. MAN MAN GeertGeert Van Van GoethemGoethem REALITYREALITYPlayground Playground VeryVery VeerlyVeerly VeerleVeerle Baetens:Baetens: ready ready forfor herher bigbig screenscreen breakthroughbreakthrough

EXTRA: AV GUIDE TO GHENT HAMBURG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2005

WORLD COMPETITION 2005 MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL

SKYLINE ENTERTAINMENT presents KOEN DE BOUW, FILIP PEETERS, ELS DOTTERMANS, AXEL DAESELEIRE, MAAIKE NEUVILLE, VIC DE WACHTER, STEVEN AERNOUTS, NATHALIE LAROCHE, GEORGES SIATIDIS, GAUTHIER DE FAUCONVAL, STEPHANE DE GROODT music by STEVE WILLAERT sound by GEERT ENGELS editing by JORIS BROUWERS art director KURT LOYENS director of photography LOU BERGHMANS produced by ERIC WIRIX screenplay by WARD HULSELMANS directed by FRANK VAN MECHELEN

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Flanders iMAGe Issue #3 | Fall 2005 | j3.5

[CREDITS] Flemish cinema is omni-present at the key Editor: international film festivals around the world this Christian De Schutter summer and fall: Nicolas Provost's Exoticore competes Sub Editor: in Locarno, Frank Van Mechelen's The Intruder competes John Adair in Montreal and screens in Munich, Venice presents Contributors: Nathalie Capiau Marcell Ivanyi's Ballada, Fien Troch's Someone Else's Kris Dewitte Happiness premières in Toronto and San Sebastian, Melanie Goodfellow Ines Van de Velde Thessaloniki screens Wim Vandekeybus' Blush, Henry Womersley Hans Herbots' The Long Weekend and Dominique Simon Wullens Deruddere's The Wedding Party screen at the Flanders Design: www.graph-x.be International Film Festival in Ghent, etc. This while a Concept: growing number of titles find their way to commercial Hype Park Publishing theatres abroad. Advertising: [email protected] This third issue of Flanders iMAGe looks at young, Subscriptions: j10/year Veerle Beatens (p6) emerging documentary talents (p4); talks with upcoming (three issues) cover photo: Kris De Witte Info: [email protected] actress and this magazine's cover girl Veerle Baetens (6); Published three times presents one of the first stills of the prestigious VTM television series King of the World (10); a year by Flanders Image unveils director Fien Troch's all-star feature film debut, Someone Else's Happiness (12); meets Handelskaai 18 B3 up with an animated Geert Van Goethem (16); takes a look at Beast Animation's new B-1000 Brussels Belgium/EU stop-motion studio (19); meets up with the Workspace Unlimited crew (20); talks with Flemish T: +32-2 226 0630 helmer Stijn Coninx about his first made-for-TV epic drama series, The Kavijaks (24); F: +32-2 219 1936 gets familiar with young documentary-maker Fabio Wuytack (28); analyses how E: [email protected] accommodating Ghent is towards film crews (30); shows some recent audiovisual www.flanders-image.com highlights (32); and looks at how Flemish singer-composer Daan is spreading his wings (34). Flanders Image is a division of the Flemish Audiovisual Everything you always wanted to know, but were never able to find out. Fund (www.vaf.be), supported by ACE Digital House, Brussels Export, Sony and Stella Artois. With the support of the Flemish Cultural-affairs Minister.

Special thanks to: Myriam De Boeck, Dirk Cools, Pierre Drouot, Hans Everaert, Kristel Van Gysel, Tom Van der Elst, Yamina El Gharbi, Karla Puttemans, Arielle Sleutel, Linda Sterckx, Luckas Vander Taelen, Jan Vandierendonck, Inge Verroken, Eva Willems and all the filmmakers and producers who helped us with this issue. flandersiMAGe $ 3 GET THE FULL PICTURE ON WWW.FLANDERS-IMAGE.COM fab IN EVERY ISSUE, FLANDERSIMAGE LOOKS AT EMERGING FILMMAKING TALENT FROM FLANDERS.THIS TIME,WE PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON FOUR YOUNG DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS WHO WERE SELECTED FOR THE FLEMISH 4 AUDIOVISUAL FUND’S (VAF) INAUGURAL WORKSHOP SESSION. UNDER GUIDANCE FROM AWARD-WINNING KRISTOF BILSEN TONE DE COOMAN • Born in: 1979 • Born in: 1979 • Film studies: Narafi Brussels • Film studies: none, I studied philosophy • Graduated in: 2002 and journalism (Ghent University) • Graduation film: Van de brug af, a short • Graduated in: 2002 documentary on the daily life of a Flemish • Graduation film: none, see above theatre company • Most recent work: I Don’t Travel, I Dream • Workshop film: Three Women (Drie vrouwen) (Je ne voyage pas, je rêve)

Who or what made you decide to become a documentary filmmaker? Who or what made you decide to become a documentary filmmaker? Documentary gives me the opportunity to watch and listen to people. I always had a keen interest in stories, images and people. Not only It’s a chance to discover daily life in a new, focused way. that, but I was also interested in film, theatre and journalism. I was Thanks to the workshop, I was able to make my first documentary. taken aback by the enthralling stories of the residents of the institute where we were filming. Some people who have few opportunities What’s your workshop film about? deserve to be heard. A documentary offers the chance of portraying Three women imprisoned in the Ghent city jail tell their stories. these kinds of non-fictitious events. But far more than just being confronted with detainees, we get to know these women as true human beings who have the time to What’s your workshop film about? hook up with others. It’s straight to the point. It’s about the vulnerability and the strength of people I met in a psychiatric institution, who were preoccupied with rehearsing a stage What's your next project? performance. The documentary takes a closer look at the emotions of At the moment, I'm focusing on reactions to this first film. these people, with whom we shared a special relationship. We show My next project will probably come about by accident. I have a few their desires, their dreams and their ways of dealing with these ideas: maybe something about children at school and their social emotions within the institute. lives. Anyway, this is still work in progress. What's your next project? What's the wildest dream you hope to be able to achieve one day? I am working on several ideas. I'm also interested in exploring the If I tell you, the dream probably won't come true! border between fiction and non-fiction. At the moment I am organising smaller projects and events with vzw Marcel asbl, a Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time? collective of socially engaged artists. I would like to elaborate on this I hope I can continue working as I please, without having to fit into initiative in the future in order to start a production company. one 'school' or way of working. I hope that I can maintain this interest Apart from that, I want to travel and explore new horizons. and curiosity, to make the films I want to, whether they be fact or fiction. What is the wildest dream you hope to be able to achieve one day? Well, I do not travel, I dream. I connect my dreams to reality. What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your career? One should be happy if each small step takes you closer to the Do I want to be remembered? That’s the real question! Whatever the realisation of a dream. answer, I think I'd like to keep the conversation going after I retire… Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time? Is there anything you'd like to change about yourself? I hope to have found an experienced producer by then to support my There are a lot of things I would like to change. I will only mention projects and who has faith in what I do. I have not made my mind up this one though: I think there is too much to decide. That is, if there whether I want to make creative documentaries or not. It would do were fewer decisions to make, there would be more opportunities… me no harm to have some interaction with other disciplines.

What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your career? That’s a tough one. That I should be remembered as the man I am today. Eventually we all leave precious things behind.

Is there anything you'd like to change about yourself? I would like to change my introverted nature and find an easier way of expressing difficult emotions. The challenge is to figure out whether I ever will be able to formulate clear answers to some of the previous questions, but I doubt that.

i Three Woman i I Don’t Travel, I Dream

4 $ flandersiMAGe fab DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER ROGER BEECKMANS, THEY DELIVERED THREE EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENTARIES THAT PREMIERED AT THIS YEAR’S EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL IN BRUSSELS. WATCH THIS SPACE, BECAUSE IN SUBSEQUENT ISSUES WE WILL BE LOOKING AT YOUNG EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA AND TELEVISION TALENTS. 4 MICHA PLETINCKX STEVEN SCHOUKENS • Born in: 1978 • Born in: 1976 • Film Studies: Kask, Ghent • Film studies: Narafi (technical training) • Graduated in: 2002 and Sint-Lukas (artistic direction) • Graduated in: 2002 • Graduation film: Twilight (Schemering) • Graduation film: La vie privée des autres, a • Most recent work: I Don’t Travel, I Dream documentary about a hairdresser for (Je ne voyage pas, je rêve) homeless people • Most recent work: One-way Ticket (1 rit-voyage)

Who or what made you decide to become a documentary filmmaker? Who or what made you decide to become a documentary filmmaker? Actually I’m not really a typical documentary filmmaker – I do fiction I grew up in an independent, but left-leaning family. At home, we as well! talked a lot about politics, peace, injustice, love, all while sitting at the kitchen table... As a student, my teachers thought that I was too What’s your workshop film about? socially engaged. When I was 15, I felt a bit of an outcast – I always A group of psychiatric patients who create a stage performance felt that I had a kind of vision of society, a vision I wanted to share about their lives in an institute. with everybody else. It’s very clichéd, but I guess I wanted to change the world into a better place back then, although I was well aware What's your next project? that it was far beyond my power. Alice, a short fiction film about a little girl who’s lost in her own imaginary world. The film will combine both live-action footage and What’s your workshop film about? stop-motion animation. My film shows an ordinary day on tram 18 in the centre of Brussels. Brussels is a very multicultural city and the trams are very crowded. What is the wildest dream you hope to be able to achieve one day? Number 18 crosses many districts, each of them with different To be blessed with the same energy as filmmakers like Kim Ki-duk nationalities, religions and languages. The mix of all those people and Takashi Miike and to be able to make more than two films a year. creates an interesting story of faces, glimpses, dialogues and even habits. For some people it’s frightening, for me it’s a treasure, a Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time? treasure of cultural diversity. If I wanted to I could meet the whole Don’t know, but I’d very much like to be able to continue making world in Brussels. films. What's your next project? What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your career? I would like to complete my project La vie privée des autres. I’m working on a documentary about the human fascination and I would like to be remembered for some of my good films, hopefully. need for energy. It starts at the beginning of mankind and runs up And maybe the magic trick with the two gold coins! to the present. Is there anything you like to change about yourself? What is the wildest dream you hope to be able to achieve one day? I’d like to develop more of a producer’s brain, so I can fight my way To make a very beautiful movie. It’s also my dream to make films through all the paperwork with greater ease. for a long time...

Where do you want to be in 10 years’ time? By then I hope to be more settled in the movie industry. Today I’m still trying to find my way in this industry. Maybe one day I’ll be really part of it and earn the respect of others.

What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your career? That’s not really my concern. I want to be remembered as a good person and maybe also as a good filmmaker.

Is there anything you like to change about yourself? I'm pretty shy. I would like to be more persuasive in order to get people to believe in my projects. Living, working, traveling, experiences… it all changes us and our views permanently... i I Don’t Travel, I Dream

i I Don’t Travel, I Dream i One-way Ticket

flandersiMAGe $ 5 FRONT Photo: Kris Dewitte

Baetens breaks through

AFTER EIGHT MONTHS TREADING THE BOARDS IN THE GUISE OF THE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S CHARACTER PIPPI LONGSTOCKING,, COVER GIRL VEERLE BAETENS IS ABOUT TO HIT THE BIG SCREEN THIS AUTUMN. SHE TALKED TO MELANIE GOODFELLOW ABOUT HER CAREER THUS FAR.

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You may not recognize the actress on In the meantime, her agent secured a people going for it and somehow I the front cover but chances are you part in Wittekerke, a sitcom set got through to the second round,’ will in a few months time. She is 27- against the backdrop of a seaside Baetens recalls. year-old Veerle Baetens. She is about town. Prior to that she also had a sup- ‘We were asked to prepare the scene to hit big and small screens in two porting role in Misstakes, a film adap- in which Pippi Longstocking first majors roles -- in The Long Weekend tation of the popular Belgian comic meets her friends Tommy and Annika. and Caught – this autumn and has strip Kiekeboe and small parts in the I prepared something accompanied just clinched her first leading role in hit thriller Alias and television series by a piece of Mozart. I think that is Storm Force, a remake of the popular Cops while still a student. why I got it. I’d prepared so well that I Flemish television series. ‘Wittekerke was my first real part. I was very certain of myself. Also, this ‘For me, Veerle Baetens is our next played this tough Israeli girl who time round the audition panel was a Shooting Star. She made me think of came to Belgium to avenge herself bit more responsive.’ Hilary Swank, sometimes Natalie against her sister who left her behind She has been resting over the sum- Portman, sometimes Asia Argento in Israel. It was very soapy and com- mer after a grueling eight-month run and even Julia Roberts but real stars pletely unlikely as a plot,’ comments of the show which toured back and don’t like to be compared to others,’ Baetens. forth between Belgium and the commented cover photographer Kris After that she went on to play a small Netherlands. Dewitte, whose past subjects include part as a teacher in Dirk Belien’s The ‘It was quite tough. I’m recovering Morgan Freeman, Chloe Sevigny and Kriegel Sisters, about a set of terrible right now. We weren’t always touring Maggie Cheung. triplet sisters, as well as a nurse in but in general we would do two Douglas Boswell’s Romance – a short shows a day, three times a week dur- FLASHDANCE about the loves and hopes of three ing term-time and then perform as The fact that Baetens got this far, elderly ladies as they come to the many as five, six days a week during however, is something of a mini- ends of their lives. the school holidays,’ she explains.

Caught i i The Kiss miracle. On graduating from the ‘I’ve been friends with Doug since we It was worth the hard work – the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in met on Kiekeboe. I really went on the production picked up five top prizes Brussels in 2002, where she special- set of Romance just to help out but at the prestigious Kaaijkamp Musical ized in musicals, Baetens nearly ended up playing the nurse after he Awards last June including Best abandoned acting altogether because couldn’t find anyone else to take on Actress for Baetens. she could not stand auditions. the role.’ ‘On the awards night, the show won ‘I wasn’t very certain of myself and I the first of its four nominations but hated auditions. I was going for parts TOP PRIZE the Best Actress had yet to be in musicals but their auditions are Her first big break was not in film, announced. I tried to tell myself that more demanding than TV or film however, but rather in musicals when it was enough that I had been ones. They’re like that scene in she managed to secure the lead role nominated but knew I would be Flashdance – it’s “okay show what in a musical adaptation of Swedish really disappointed if I didn’t win you’ve got to show” – and I didn’t like writer Astrid Lindgren’s children’s while all the other categories had,’ it,’ recalls the actress. classic Pippi Longstocking. ‘I went for a couple of things but I felt ‘It involved doing an audition again. she recalls. like I wasn’t good enough and I At that point I hadn’t done an She is set to perform in another started thinking about exploring audition for four years but I three-month run this autumn and other fields. I’m pretty good at mustered all my strength and told then plans to retire from the show drawing so I started looking into myself “You can do it”. I thought the although she remains passionate graphic art.’ role would be fun. There were a lot of about the musical genre.

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‘PEOPLE SAY ACTING HAS TO COME FROM THE INSIDE BUT I THINK THE OUTSIDE IS IMPORTANT TOO...’

The Long Weekend i

HILDE VAN MIEGHEM also help Marie’s character, Sarah, so social drama Caught, which was ‘I’ve always been into musical films – I I’m not so bad,’ she says. ‘I love work- originally made for television but love the combination of acting, ing with Hilde. She always makes me might get a theatrical release early singing and dancing. For me Baz believe in myself – she is capable of next year. The harrowing story Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is pulling things out of me. She’s a very revolves around convicted paedophile mind-blowing. The scene featuring strong woman. Sometimes I feel Dennis who on his release from the Roxanne number gives me goose totally comfortable with that and at prison, returns to live with his mom bumps. I prefer the modern stuff like others she scares me.’ Baetens has and dad in the neighbourhood where Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar,’ she remained good friends with Vinck. he previously offended. says. ‘Douglas and I are brainstorming The pair recently ended up Baetens plays Barbara, the sister of all the time about musicals. We’d love auditioning opposite one another for one of his victims who is bitterly to make a modern one. The only the same part.‘We had to learn the opposed to his return. When Dennis trouble is that there’s not much same text and play opposite one re-offends, Barbara strangely sees his support for the musical in Flanders. It another – it was strange but fun. offence in another light. doesn’t get any arts funding, which is Afterwards, we bumped into Hilde Almost immediately after Caught, the crazy – just because it’s commercial and she asked us if we thought either actress transferred over to the set of doesn’t mean it isn’t art,’ she says. of us had got it. Marie said,“She’s got Hans Herbots’ The Long Weekend Prior to performing in Pippi it.” I said,“No, I think Marie’s got it.” (Verlengd weekend) – a farcical tragi- Longstocking, Baetens also landed a In the end, Hilde said she had to write comedy about two embittered ex-fac- role in Hilde Van Mieghem’s The Kiss a script about the two of us – about tory workers who kidnap their former starring the director’s daughter Marie two friends who are like two sisters.’ manager. They want to force him to Vinck as teenager who falls for a pay damages to the loyal workers small-time crook. THE LONG WEEKEND who were unceremoniously sacked ‘I played the half sister of the bad guy. Baetens has since worked with Van when the company went bankrupt. I was also a prostitute but in the end I Mieghem again in the upcoming When the manager’s mistress

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turns-up their plans go awry. candidate for the mistress role, he did turns up for her photo shoot with Jan Decleir and Wouter Hendrickx not think she would fit the bill. Dewitte, she looks like a full-blown play the masked kidnappers and Koen ‘We’d worked together for four weeks vamp. De Bouw the manager. Baetens is the but it wasn’t until he saw me on the mistress. test video that he could picture me in STORM FORCE ‘I’m Jan’s daughter, Koen’s mistress the role. He was like,“Oh she looks Looking to the future, Baetens has and falling in love with the other like that”. That’s one of the frustrating just secured her first lead role in one,’ she says with a laugh.‘Jan’s things about directors and producers Storm Force, the feature-length character doesn’t know I am the – they can’t see that people can adaptation of a popular Flemish manager’s mistress. He’s scared I’ll change. They don’t have any fantasy.’ television series about a search and work out who he is so he doesn’t ‘When I get a role in a movie, the first rescue helicopter crew, being speak to me.’ thing I do is start searching in books developed by production powerhouse ‘When I read the script, I thought it and magazines for pictures of people, MMG which also made hits such as was quite comic but the finished film is actually quite tragic. Jan’s character even actresses, I can compare the The Alzheimer Case. has been sacked after 40 years of character with. Then I start modelling But as her cinema career takes off loyal service and is being eaten-up by the character. People say acting has to she doesn’t plan to abandon musicals what has happened to him.’ come from the inside but I think the entirely.‘I love the fact, I can do both. Asked what it was like to play outside is important too… I’m not just You get a lot of people who do opposite local heartthrob De Bouw, talking going from ‘fat’ to ‘skinny’, but theatre and television but not so Baetens responds:‘Actually I was far you can change your hair, age, voice, many who do theatre and cinema. more excited about working with Jan the way you stand. I love playing with They require such different Decleir, he’s my real hero. He was in appearances, trying out different techniques. Anyone can act in The Kiss but I didn’t have much to do hairstyles, makeup, dressing up as a movies as long as they look good on with him on that set.’ starlet from the 1940s or 1950s, for camera. Theatre requires a bit of example.’ Flanders Image can attest technique and training. Projecting PICTURE PERFECT to her ability for transformation. The your voice to 2,000 people requires The Long Weekend director Herbots day she comes in for her interview, technique – you need to make had previously worked with Baetens she’s dressed in a jeans and a t-shirt. everything bigger.” in Wittekerke but when producer Her hair is pulled back and face Whichever genre Baetens works in, Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem devoid of make-up. She would go one thing is for sure: we’ll be hearing originally suggested her as a unnoticed on the street. The day she a lot more about her in the future.

The Long Weekend i VEERLE BAETENS VEERLE BAETENS’ (1978) FILM CREDITS INCLUDE:

2006 - Storm Force (Windkracht 10) 2006 - Caught (Gevangen) 2005 - Long Weekend (Verlengd Weekend) 2004 - Romance (short) 2004 - The Kiss (De Kus 2004 - The Kriegel Sisters (De Zusjes Kriegel) 2002 - Up (short) 2001 - Alias (De alias) 1999 - Misstakes (Misstoestanden) Caught i

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KING OF TH

Photo: Sofie Silbermann

Director Guido Henderickx (Burnt Based on an original screenplay by television series about a young boxer Bridge; S; Mother, What's the Marc Didden (Brussels By Night, A who, in the last days of WW2, fights Meaning of Life?) was in Cuba this Man Needs A Plan), and described as his way to become the European summer to shoot King of the World an 'emotional rollercoaster', King of champion. (Koning van de wereld). the World is a prestigious five-part Torn between his love for two

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HE WORLD

women, he finds it hard to deal with Josse De Pauw, Carry Goossens, support from the Flemish success. Katelijne Damen, Ellen Schoenaerts, Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Starring Kevin Janssens, the series' Frank Vercruyssen and Natali Broods. impressive cast also includes Jan Production company is Roses Are Decleir, Koen De Bouw, Blue for broadcaster VTM, with

flandersiMAGe $ 11 DISCOVERIES

A VILLAGE AFFAIR FIEN TROCH’S PSYCHOLOGICAL WHODUNIT SOMEONE ELSE’S HAPPINESS,, WHICH WHICH ISIS TOTO GETGET ITSITS WORLDWORLD PREMIÈREPREMIÈRE ININ TORONTO MIGHT BE THE DIRECTOR’S DEBUT FEATURE BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED HER FROM RECRUITING A STELLAR CAST. MELANIE GOODFELLOW CAUGHT UP WITH THE DIRECTOR MID-WAY THROUGH THE SHOOT THIS SPRING.

Photo: Kris Dewitte

The day director Fien Troch comes of a local child. As suspicions mount themselves who did it but the more into offices of Flanders Image she is over the possible culprit, hidden important thing is that they get to still in the throes of shooting her tensions and emotions come to the know the characters involved and debut feature Someone Else’s surface in the tight-knit community. their problems.’ Happiness (Een ander zijn geluk). ‘The search for the killer is an excuse This debut feature is a low budget It is the middle of March and to tell the story of the whole village,’ affair of some j 1.2 million but this unseasonable snowfalls across explains Troch.‘Everybody is a bit has not prevented Troch from Belgium have set the shooting suspicious. It’s more of a psychologi- recruiting some of the biggest schedule back by a week. cal tale than a detective story. names in Flemish cinema for the ‘It never snows in Belgium, only I wanted to tell a story exploring cast including Josse de Pauw when I shoot,’ she says with a note how people connected with each (Everybody Famous!), Johan Leysen of anguish.‘We had to stop – sud- other – I was looking for an event or (Miss Montigny), Natali Broods denly the landscape was totally something that would act as (Anyway the Wind Blows). Even Jan white. There was no continuity. catalyst for this.’ Decleir (The Alzheimer Case) has a At first we tried to clear the snow – small part. we cleared a whole street and the INA GEERTS ‘The budget isn’t huge. The only way surrounding gardens but then it ‘I grew up in a village but the story we could make this film is because started snowing again – we gave up.’ doesn’t come from there. It’s pure those involved are working for less Shot on location south of Brussels, fantasy – I’ve always been intrigued money and some have deferred their Someone Else’s Happiness revolves by how people are connected with fees,’ explains producer Antonino around a small village sent into a one another and interact with one Lombardo of Brussels-based Prime tailspin after the hit-and-run killing another. I hope spectators will ask Time. The female lead Ina Geerts,

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however, is a theatre actress who is story is quite traumatic there is an recounts Troch.‘In the end, he said he relatively unknown in cinema. element of humour in the script,’ really didn’t need to edit it as long as She plays Chris, an unstable, neurotic admits Troch.‘In a period in which he could come over and watch the woman, on the verge of a nervous bad things are happening there are work as it progressed and give his breakdown, who discovers the child’s always moment of absurdity and opinion. Maybe he thought he was body. She finds herself at the heart humour is one of the best ways of too close or that he would get of the investigation. dealing with unhappiness – I tried to nervous.’ ‘Part of her attraction for me was put this into the script.’ The film has remained in good that she is not well-known in cinema hands: Leunen has edited a slew of – I like the fact the audience won’t NATURAL THING innovative works by Flanders’ hottest associate her with other roles,’ says Troch is the daughter of respected upcoming directing talent over the Troch.‘She’s very natural. She’s editor Ludo Troch, who has worked last five years including Felix van beautiful but not in a classic sense. with the cream of the Flemish film Groeningen’s Steve + Sky and Nicolas She’s got a very distinctive face.’ industry over the years including Provost’s Exoticore. Previous works Dominique Deruddere and Stijn by Troch, who graduated from Sint COMING HOME Coninx. Last year, he won the Lukas Academy in Brussels in 2000, The 28-years-old director admits to prestigious French César award for include her graduation short Maria being slightly intimidated by the his editing of An Amazing Couple - and a children’s short Cool Sam en combined clout of the ensemble cast part of Lucas Belvaux’ award-win- Sweet Suzy. in the early days of the shoot. ning trilogy. ‘I was scared at the beginning ‘Because of my father’s work film is a NEW SCRIPT because many of them were profes- very natural thing for me. I didn’t Maria revolves around a young sionals with a lot of experience. think of it as something exotic,’ she woman’s battle to get her children I was worried they would say:“But says.‘I never managed to figure out back after she returns home from an

‘I GREW UP IN A VILLAGE BUT THE STORY DOESN’T COME FROM THERE. IT’S PURE FANTASY – I’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTRIGUED BY HOW PEOPLE ARE CONNECTED WITH ONE ANOTHER AND INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER. I HOPE SPECTATORS WILL ASK THEMSELVES WHO DID IT BUT THE MORE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THEY GET TO KNOW THE CHARACTERS INVOLVED AND THEIR PROBLEMS’ – FIEN TROCH

i Someone Else's Happiness you don’t do it like that, you do it like if it was because of him that I went unspecified institution. Rejected by this”. But this didn’t happen. It might into cinema or whether I would have her former friends and faced with a seem a bit strange but going onto gone into it anyway. It seemed a seemingly hopeless situation, she set was a bit like coming home,’ she natural progression, it has been part keeps up her spirits by fantasizing recalls.‘The actors were respectful - of my daily life since I was small. But about a future life with her children. they just said ‘Tell us what we need my brother who had the same ‘I wanted to tell a story about a very to do because you’re the director.’ experience hasn’t ended up in strong woman but I was looking for Geerts says that despite the film’s cinema.’ Interestingly, Troch Sr. has something that made her different,’ tragic subject matter the film is not edited his daughter’s film. The explains Troch.‘Despite her problems imbued with a strange humour. task fell instead to her boyfriend she has a strong spirit and she can Others involved suggest it has a Nico Leunen.‘Nico and my father handle it.’ Although post-production David Lynch feel about it. discussed who was going to do it for had yet to begin when Troch spoke ‘I think people get a bit confused nearly a year. They were like “You do to Flanders Image, she already had about this because although the it”,“No, no, I insist you do it”,’ another script on the boil.‘I had to

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DISCOVERIES

wait for two years for the funding to still at a very, very basic stage. It’s Bouw.‘I’ll dust it off and see if I still come together for Someone Else’s about a father who is looking for his like it.’ Someone Else’s Happiness is to Happiness. I was getting really missing daughter. It might sound a receive its world premiere at this nervous and driving everyone bit like The Intruder but it’s not at all year’sToronto International Film crazy. Everybody told me to get the same,’ she adds, referring to the Festival. Its European première is set for started on a new script,’ she says.‘It’s recent Flemish hit starring Koen De San Sebastian.

FIEN TROCH FIEN TROCH’S CREDITS INCLUDE: 2005 - Someone Else’s happiness (Een ander zijn geluk) 2001 - Cool Sam & Sweet Suzy 2000 - Maria

i Antonino Lombardo i Someone Else's Happiness hit children’s films and the popular cinema – I believe in directors who ANTONINO’S LINE kids adventure The Dark Diamond. create their own universe and then Someone Else’s Happiness producer ‘For me there are two key sorts of tell it in a way that appeals to people Antonino Lombardo set up his film project,’ he says.‘There are all over the world, like Marleen Brussels-based production company projects like Blinker and The Dark Gorris.’ Prime Time straight out of film Diamond where you buy the rights Financing the films of relative school to produce the films he wanted to direct. to the book, pick the director and unknowns such as Troch is not have the final say on the final cut getting any easier, he says. Thus far, ‘I originally wanted to be a director. and then there are the auteur he has managed to stay afloat by I started making movies with Super projects where you have to take a alternating auteur projects such as 8s when I was 14-years-old. slightly more hands-off approach. Someone Else’s Happiness with more I did a degree in directing at the ‘Of course, Fien and I discuss the commercial ventures such as Blinker Sint Lukas film academy,’ he film’s progress and I give her my and The Dark Diamond. Finance for recounts.‘I set-up the production opinion. For example, we recently Someone’s Else’s Happiness came company to raise finance and had a discussion over a couple of from the Flemish Audiovisual Fund produce my own films.’ Instead, he ended up producing scenes that I think are too long. But (VAF), the tax shelter and broadcast- writer/director Marc Didden’s 1988 at the end of the day the final cut ers Prime (the former Canal + tragicomedy Sailors Don’t Cry along belongs to her.’ Lombardo says he is Vlaanderen) and VRT. Netherlands side another budding producer, constantly on the look out for new co-producers Motel Films also Dutch Kees Kasander.‘I ended up talent. Alongside producing, he runs brought on board Netherlands Film producing more than I was a production course at Sint Lukas Fund money. directing,’ he explains. which, he says, enables him to scope Upcoming projects on Lombardo’s ‘In the end I got just as much satis- out new talent. slate include an adaptation of late faction. It can be an equally creative ‘For me new auteurs are the Flemish playwright Michel de process.’ His production credits to life-blood of the film industry. I’m Ghelderode’s farcical work Escurial date include Didden’s A Man Needs A always on the lookout for directors and a television series based on a Plan, Dutch Marleen Gorris’ Oscar- with vision. I don’t believe in Flemish novel by the best-selling Flemish winning Antonia’s Line, the Blinker cinema, Walloon cinema or German author Tom Lanoye. MG

flandersiMAGe $ 15 ANIMA S.O.I.L SURVIVOR AFTER A BRIEF HIATUS, S.O.I.L PRODUCER GEERT VAN GOETHEM IS BACK ON THE ANIMATION SCENE WITH A SLEW OF PROJECTS – SO MANY IN FACT IT’S A WONDER HE KEEPS UP WITH THEM.

i Lost Cargo Animation producer Geert Van co-produced the film with Luxembourg the stop-motion technique. Goethem of Brussels production house company Samsa Film putting up just S.O.I.L turns up with a stack of project under 50 percent of the j 500,000 ANIMATION POTENTIAL treatments and DVDs under his arm budget. Van Goethem first got into animation in and immediately starts mustering ‘I met Daniel at the Espinho Animation the mid 1990s. S.O.I.L (Sight Of an people for an impromptu screening of Festival in Portugal and he contacted Ignored Landscape) was already in exis- rough-cuts of two upcoming releases. me a couple of years ago about this tence by then but its remit was wider. It The first, Luxembourg director Daniel crazy idea that he had about a man had been originally set up as a platform Wiroth’s Elegant, is an endearing who is in contact with a community of to support adventurous projects across fantasy starring French actor Denis living gloves,’ recounts Van Goethem. the arts.‘We did a couple of animation Lavant (Les amants du Pont Neuf) as a The second title is an amusing short shorts,’ recounts Van Goethem.‘I imme- man who forms a close relationship called Lost Cargo about an intergalactic diately liked it as a medium. I see with a collection of magical gloves he trucker whose spaceship malfunctions, animation as a sort of crossroads where finds in an apartment he inherits. which S.O.I.L co-produced with visual art, film art, cinema, music, even It cleverly combines stop motion Netherlands animation company dance all meet together.‘I discovered animation with live action. S.O.I.L ilLuster. This too, is shot using there was an enormous pool of talent in

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Belgium but also that there was a lack also collaborating on Elegant and the of production structures. There were ongoing The Cid (see page 19). hardly any animation producers. It was The latter is a quirky adaptation of 17th impossible to ignore this potential.’ In Century playwright Pierre Corneille’s between producing a number of criti- classic play inspired by the legendary cally acclaimed but financially disas- Spanish hero Rodriguez Diaz. The char- trous contemporary open-air operas, acters are represented by a cast of fan- S.O.I.L continued to work on animated tastical insects. Written and directed by shorts, getting its first big break in 2000 French director Emanuelle Gorgiard, it is i Elegant with Benoît Feroument’s Bzz. The amu- a co-production with French Vivement sing tale of man with a thing about a way of retaining our individuality but Lundi based in the Breton city of bees, the 10-minute work screened at stimulating collaboration at the same Rennes. S.O.I.L raised just under 50 Cannes and was immensely popular on time.’ percent of the j 600,000 budget.‘La the festival circuit where it picked up a Femme Papillon got a lot of attention slew of prizes.‘That sort of opened PAIN-STAKING and that’s how Vivement Lundi! heard things up for us,’ says Van Goethem. Two years down the line, Van Goethem about us,’ says Van Goethem.‘At first we has dispelled his post-Triplets doubts weren’t sure about it because we were SUCCESFUL COLLABORATION and is working on a slew of projects, very busy with Lost Cargo. They kept calling and I thought I had found a way Around about that time Viviane many of them using the stop-motion of putting them off by saying they Vanfleteren of Vivi Film contacted Van animation. He got his first taste of this would have to shoot part of the produc- Goethem. She had gotten involved in pain-staking technique - in which a tion in Belgium but instead they just the financial side of French Sylvain sequence is built up of single frames of an object moved a little bit in each take said “That’s okay, we’ll take the train”. Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville and - with French director Virginie Bourdin’s ’The production spent three months was looking for someone to help her 2002 La Femme Papillon, which he from June at Beast Animations’ studio out on the executive side. co-produced with Arnaud Demuynck of in Brussels and has now re-located to ‘She didn’t know the animation world Les Films du Nord. Rennes for another three-and-a-half that well at that time and contacted ‘It was very difficult but a very beautiful months. me. I agreed to get involved on the design. Arnaud had never done stop- Aside from the stop-motion animation proviso the Belgian animators could do motion but I knew a lot of the new projects, Van Goethem is also involved there work in Belgium. I felt, and still generation of stop-motion animators in French director Jerome Boulbes’ 3D, feel, strongly that it’s the only way we coming out of the schools. It was a bit CGI futuristic fantasy Nuages, will build an infrastructure here.’ like Triplets as an operation – I found a alongside French Lardux Films and He put together a small team for a studio and created a team of local tal- Belgian La Parti Production.‘Half of standalone 2D sequence at the ent including Efim Perlis and Steven de the film will be done in Brussels. beginning of the film and contacted Eric Beul,’ he recounts. The idea is that Pieter Van Houte will Goossens of Walking the Dog for some Van Goethem continues to work with set up a team of some 18 to 20 people of the 3D work. It was a hugely success- both Flemish animators. Perlis, for here,’ he says. ful collaboration – which helped draw example, co-directed Lost Cargo along- Beyond this, he is also working on an ambitious project in which 15 young attention to the potential of Belgium’s side compatriot Pieter Engels. Aside from his financial participation, the animators will direct a series of shorts animation sector – but all three compa- i inspired by contemporary poetry. Elegant nies went their separate ways for a time producer also brought in Pieter Van ‘It’s based on an idea from the immediately after Triplets.‘It was a bit Houte, who was Chomet’s assistant on Triplets, for the special effects.‘Because Netherlands. The point is not to of a strange period - I even thought of the shoot was a lot more complicated illustrate the poem but rather to stopping,’ admits Van Goethem.‘I think than expected, I also called on Steven,’ feel the poem, interpret it in a everybody needed space to work out he adds. personal way,’ he explains.‘We’re “Who am I? What do I want to do?”We going to have to help the animators needed to find our independence. I’m FANTASTICAL INSECTS pull the dialogue out of themselves. convinced we’ll work together again in He and de Beul, who now operates These will be their first films.’ the future. The challenge is to work out under the Beast Animations banner, are Melanie Goodfellow i Geert Van Goethem

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i De Beul

i Tesseur SEXY BEASTS AT THE STUDIOS OF BEAST ANIMATION IN BRUSSELS, ANIMATOR STEVEN DE BEUL IS CREATING A SEQUENCE FOR FRENCH DIRECTOR EMANUELLE GORGIARD’S THE CID, A QUIRKY RETELLING OF THE MEDIEVAL SPANISH EPIC STARRING A CAST OF FANTASTICAL INSECTS, USING THE STOP-MOTION ANIMATION TECHNIQUE.

De Beul is working on a scene featuring what you will - that can’t be created rarity in the sector. De Beul focuses on the female protagonist Jimena. She is through CGI.’ animation, Tesseur also builds sets and represented, like all the characters, by a ‘I like to work with material. I want to sorts out studio logistics. model of a fantastical insect. Beautifully touch things. I want to move them but Their first project, under the Beast ornate, Jimena boasts flashing dark eyes physically not just on a computer,’ says Animation banner, was Daniel Wiroth’s and long undulating wings that she de Beul. Elegant – about a man who befriends a moves around like a cloak. Ben Tesseur The pair studied together at respected set of living gloves. Bringing to life, this painstakingly moves her wings by RITS arts and media academy in cast of real gloves, featuring an elegant almost imperceptible amounts in Brussels, going their separate ways on red silk arm-length glove as the leading between shots to gradually create the graduation. lady Gilda, was no easy task. movement. Their paths crossed again on Virginie ‘We had some gloves especially made Stop-motion is one of the oldest Bourdin’s La Femme Papillon. After and modified other ordinary gloves techniques in animation, past classics collaborating on a number of other ourselves,’ says Tesseur.‘Each glove had include The Magic Roundabout and stop-motion projects including the hit a different character and we had to find Chicken Run, but in a world of CGI French series Panique au Village and ways of conveying this. The live action technology does such artisan-style Lost Cargo, a humorous short set on a parts were shot during the day we animation really have a place? spaceship, they came to the conclusion would work overnight.’ De Beul and his partner at Beast that there was enough stop-motion After The Cid, other possible projects Animation, Tesseur, certainly think so. work about to set up a studio. include a feature version of Panique au ‘Stop-motion is magic. We call it sexy- They launched Beast Animation in Village and JC, a short co-written by mation,’ says Tesseur. 2004. As well as offering their own Tesseur and De Beul about a social ‘There’s something about stop-motion - creative services, they also operate a misfit obsessed with building a a feeling, an atmosphere, call it well-equipped stop-motion studio – a cathedral. MG

flandersiMAGe $ 19 MIX MEDIA PLAYING WITH REALITY

MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST THOMAS SOETENS AND ARCHITECT KORA VAN DEN BULCKE HAVE TURNED GAMES TECHNOLOGY ON ITS HEAD BY CREATING A SERIES OF DAZZLING VIRTUAL WORLDS. MELANIE GOODFELLOW SPOKE TO THE PAIR WHO OPERATE UNDER THE WORKSPACE UNLIMITED BANNER.

In 2003 the Society of Arts and the way people experience digital art project first and then physically visit Technology (SAT) in the Canadian city and digital space. On first accessing the SAT look for the elevator up to the of Montreal opened a state-of-the-art, Extension, visitors enter an exact Zeppelin part of the building. They Zeppelin-shaped wing devoted to replica of SAT’s real-life ground floor start comparing realities. In their digital art. Since then, more than lobby from where they take the lift up minds the virtual part of the building 20,000 visitors have taken the to the added virtual building. exists,’ comments Van den Bulcke. high-speed elevator to this upper-floor ‘Because the believability of the extension to explore its galleries. ground floor is so convincing visitors RADICAL OVERHAUL There’s nothing extraordinary in this pretty much accept that the upper Extension is just one node of but for the fact this futuristic space floor is also there and that the Workspace Unlimited’s expanding doesn’t, in physical terms at least, extension has a connection with the Virtual World of Art network – a series really exist: it is a virtual of interconnected wing accessed through ‘IT’S HARD TO PREDICT THE EVOLUTION OF VIRTUAL projects linked to a computer workstations specific public space, a WORLDS WITHOUT BEING UTOPIAN, BUT WHAT IS in SAT’s real-life ground city, an arts centre or, floor lobby. CERTAIN IS THAT VIRTUAL WORLDS, AS AN even, a temporary It is the creation of INTERDISCIPLINARY FORM OF DIGITAL MEDIA, HAVE event such as a digital Flemish multi-media A SIMILAR IMPACT ON ART AS PHOTOGRAPHY art festival. artist Thomas Soetens AND MOVIES HAVE HAD IN THE PAST’ All the projects of the and architect Kora Van Virtual World of Art den Bulcke, founders of Workspace network were built using the software Unlimited, an itinerant collective of real building. The Extension project of a popular computer game called artists and computer programmers, questions, in many ways, ideas of Quake III – a multiplayer, first-person which create virtual worlds with game space and location. For example, the shooter game in which the players technology. SAT is situated in downtown Montreal move through different environments The specific aim of the SAT project, but the extension is situated in the old killing their opponents. says Soetens, was to explore the port and looks out on the downtown One of the game’s main attractions to potential of ‘hybrid and augmented area in the distance...’ its millions of fans is the shareware reality’ and to redefine and transform ‘A lot of people who see the SAT made available by its Texas-based

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makers id Software. It enables players to digital art installations – all of George Bush, his vice-president Dick to modify just about every aspect of which have also been created using Cheney and terrorists such as Osama the game from the environment in games software.‘Games generally Bin Laden are programmed to use pre- which the game unfolds to the revolve around a mission. The players emptive killing as a survival strategy. outcome. are directed toward a set outcome,’ The characters consider each other as ‘Quake III comes with a set of free says Van den Bulcke.‘Here we try to targets. They battle it out with subma- tools (GTK Radiant) supported and engage visitors in clusters of ideas chine guns, somersaulting perpetually used by a large community. Fans can rather than in a linear experience. in a blood-splattered cube, shooting develop their own game modifica- We confront them and engage them manically at anyone who gets in their tions,’ explains Thomas Soetens. in artistically challenging situations.‘ way. A rock guitar riff mixed with CBS In what must be one of the game’s Some of the installations, like news reports blares out over the racket most radical overhauls to date, Diplomatic Arena, bear obvious of gunfire. Dialogue boxes pop up at Soetens and Van den Bulcke turned testimony to their computer game the top of the screen showing the kill the players into visitors of roots. Created in the run-up to the Gulf tally… ’US Vice-President Dick Cheney interconnected game-engine-based War, it is a three-part piece shot Osama Bin Laden, US President art projects accessible form different commenting on the failure of George Bush…’ parts in the world. diplomacy to prevent the conflict. ‘It is inspired by the unavoidable out- In Part One, computer-generated come of the war in Iraq,’ explains ARTISTICALLY CHALLENGING characters controlled by artificial Soetens.‘The concept of pre-emptive In Extension, visitors can walk through intelligence representing international strike is put into a cycle of violence a series of portals giving them access political figures such as US President similar to what is going on right now.’

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MIX MEDIA

LABYRINTHINE WORK SAT project in many ways,’ comments of Ghent. This node will reflect on how Other works are more abstract. Infinite Soetens.‘The main theme of the virtual networks and virtual spaces can 60 Seconds, for example, is a sound- festival was Open Systems. It chal- become part of the evolution and scape based on a recording of a watch lenged us to conceive a continuous cultural significance of a city. during exactly 60 seconds. The source experience out of a temporary event.’ This project as well as Extension and material has been sampled and In Devmap, each visitor shapes his own Devmap will go online in 2006, a move filtered to create several tracks that environment, through the choice of his that will expand the scope and each travel through space on an paths, observations and interactions possibilities of the Virtual World of Art orbital (looping) path. Once inside the with elements captured from the network even further. installation, a jumble of circles festival (works of art, interviews, ‘It’s hard to predict the evolution of permanently rotating to the sound of presentations, etc.), and with other virtual worlds without being utopian, several ticking watches, the visitor interlopers (potentially at other but what is certain is that virtual changes the way the tracks combine locations) simultaneously exploring worlds, as an interdisciplinary form of to create an experience, always unique, and visiting the Devmap space. Visitors digital media, have a similar impact on of an infinitely looping 60 seconds are also shaped by their environment, art as photography and movies have composition.‘Time and space are both as information adheres to their had in the past. At the moment it’s not questioned and refracted in the character’s skin, letting others see generally understood as art as was the perspective of repetition and where they have been. case for photography and cinema in uniqueness.’ ‘Devmap is a theatre of subjectivity, their early days. But this is changing Storyscape, meanwhile, is a exploring how people simultaneously and more and more people are labyrinthine work revolving around a experiencing multiple realities share accepting this as an artistic experience non-linear story.The user navigates the same public space. Two visitors in and this in turn is influencing existing around the fragments of text, moving the same virtual space can see each media.’ them about in the process – distorting other, even speak with each other, yet and changing their meaning. what they perceive around themselves WWW.WORKSPACE-UNLIMITED.ORG ‘We tried to create a story within a 3-D may be entirely different, depending space - it’s a sort of 3-D poem, story if on the paths they have taken and the you like,’ comments Van den Bulcke. information they have absorbed. Only Workspace Unlimited created all the by observing each other’s skins or installations and environments. The through direct communication can collective plans to open Virtual World each form an idea of what the other is of Art to other artists through a experiencing. If two visitors happen to workshop starting this fall.‘There are be side by side in the real exhibition several artists out there making space, they may sneak glimpses of i Thomas Soetens and Kora Van den Bulcke i artistic game modifications,’ says each other’s screens to fully Soetens.‘It is rare to find an understand how different their virtual environment specifically dealing with worlds really are,’ explains Van den these experiences. It would be great to Bulcke. create a coherent network for these ‘We wanted to create an unpredictable projects.’ virtual world. The resulting experience forms a poetic memory of the event; THEATRE OF SUBJECTIVITY like real memories, the representation After completing the SAT project, shifts, mutates, and takes on its own Thomas and Kora were commissioned identity, detached from the original by V2_, Institute for the Unstable reality,’ comments Soetens. Media, an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in IMPACT ON ART Rotterdam (The Netherlands), to create Workspace Unlimited is currently also a unique work for the Dutch Electronic developing a third project called Art Festival (DEAF).‘Devmap is a Implant in conjunction with the radically different approach from the Vooruit arts centre in the Flemish city

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CONINX’ small screen saga AFTER A LIFE-TIME DEVOTED TO FEATURE-LENGTH FILM, DIRECTOR STIJN CONINX IS ABOUT TO UNVEIL HIS FIRST MADE-FOR-TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES, THE KAVIJAKS (DE KAVIJAKS), A FAMILY EPIC SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF WORLD WAR 2 STARRING AN ENSEMBLE FLEMISH CAST INCLUDING JAN DECLEIR, HILDE VAN MIEGHEM AND MARIE VINCK. Photo: Kris Dewitte

It is a little known fact outside of after to say he wanted to grant me a spoke to me about this project about Belgium but director Stijn Coninx’ baronetcy.’ two years ago. I read his script and correct title is Baron Stijn Coninx. He The king’s ideas would never be was immediately enthusiastic,’ says rarely uses it, however, and looks developed further for he died a few Coninx.‘Jozef Vantorre is essentially surprised when it is brought up in months later. Many of Coninx’ films, the main character Piften. He is one conversation. however, have explored society and of 13 children. The story follows his ‘I hardly ever think about it,’ he says. the struggle of individuals to find a search for love – at first, he tries to ‘I was given it a long time ago – back place in society in a way that would find it in his family but because his in 1993. The then king (King Baudouin have very probably appealed to the mother is so busy she has little time I of Belgium) saw my film Daens and king. to lavish attention on one son. was very moved by it,’ recounts ‘The five parts of the series are Coninx, referring to his named after five important Oscar-nominated film tack- ‘I DO THINK A GOOD WAY OF woman in his life: his mother, ling the terrible conditions LOOKING AT CONTEMPORARY FEELINGS IS his sister Jetje and three in a Belgian textile town in other female TO REFER TO STORIES IN THE PAST’ the 1890s. characters who enter his life: ‘It was very strange. He invit- Marcella, Esther and Belinda.’ ed me for an audience and we talked JAN DECLEIR Aside from Piften’s quest to work out for a long time – it was very special. His latest production The Kavijaks is a if true love is possible, the series also He had a few ideas of his own for five-part television series based on follows the lives of the other children films and said let’s keep in touch. He Jozef Vantorre’s Flemish bestseller as well as their relationship with their would send me newspaper articles, following the fortunes of a large, tough-talking, no-nonsense father stories about society, how to survive impoverished but close-knit family who believes his children should learn in today’s world, the relationship living in the port of Ostend during to stand on their own two feet as between men and women… His World War Two. early as palace contacted me a short while ‘The script is by Marc Didden. He possible.

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‘He doesn’t think it is his duty to put Competition at this year’s Montreal living in straitened circumstances. food on his family’s table. He has World Film Fest. Coninx says this is more of a another view of love,’ explains As in many of his previous films such coincidence rather than a conscious Coninx. as Daens and Sea of Silence, about a move. Popular Jan Decleir, who previously young girl growing up in the shadow ’It wasn’t a deliberate move but it’s starred in Daens and appeared in of an alcoholic father in a farming true I’m more attracted to this sort of Coninx’ early comedy Koko Flanel, community in the 1960s, there are a social drama than detective stories or plays the father. Decleir’s son Jenne number of child protagonists in the thrillers revolving around a murder. and daughter Sophie are also in the film. I thought The Alzheimer Case was cast. Jenne Decleir has a major role as ‘Somebody joked that I had dealt interesting but it’s not my cup of tea,’ the grown-up Piften. Sophie plays the with a family of five in Sea of Silence he comments. oldest sister. so dealing with a family of 13 should ‘And not all my films are set in the ‘It’s the third time we’ve worked not be too hard – in fact the child past – other films like When the Light together. Jan is unbelievable,’ cast is slightly larger than that Comes and Koko Flanel had nothing to comments Coninx. because many of the character are do with the past. That said, I do think played by two actors due to the time a good way of looking at CHILD CAST span from just before the war to contemporary feelings is to refer to The Kavijaks is Coninx’ first major 1946… This also raised problems of stories in the past. television drama although he has creating continuity in the characters,’ ‘The trouble with working with directed comedy for television in the comments Coninx. contemporary stories is that past. He treated the shoot like that of ‘Of course working with children is sometimes events catch up with you. a film.‘It’s shot on Super-16 and not different from working with adults. I once tried to write a script about on video and most crew members I’ve worked with children a lot – ever what was happening in Romania

‘I’VE WORKED WITH CHILDREN A LOT – EVER SINCE DAENS. YOU HAVE TO COMMUNICATE WITH CHILDREN DIFFERENTLY FROM PROFESSIONAL ADULT ACTORS. YOU CAN’T JUST TELL A SMALL CHILD TO RESPOND TO SOMETHING WITH “CYNICISM”, FOR EXAMPLE, BECAUSE HE OR SHE WON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN. THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT SET OF REFERENCES’

i The Kavijaks f come from the film world. We han- since Daens. You have to communi- under the Ceausescu regime but dled it like a film. Although we had to cate with children differently from events overtook me – before I knew it work very fast, in our minds it was a professional adult actors. You can’t the story had moved on.’ film,’ says the director. just tell a small child to respond to His next project is in a very different Cinematographer Renaat Lambeets something with “cynicism”, for vein. Entitled The Extraordinary Life of previously worked on Tom Barman’s example, because he or she won’t Sister Smile it is a biopic about Anyway the Wind Blows and the understand what you mean. They Belgian’s notorious singing nun Soeur acclaimed documentary White King, have a different set of references.’ Sourire (Sister Smile). It is based in a Red Rubber, Black Death. Editor Joris script by Chris Vander Stappen, who Brouwers cut the local box office hit SISTER SMILE also wrote Alain Berliner’s Ma Vie en The Intruder, which is to receive its Like Sea of Silence, The Kavijaks is a Rose (My Life in Pink). Belgian actress international première in Official period piece revolving around family Cécile de France is attached to play

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ONCE UPON A REEL

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Sister Smile. developing the project with Dutch ‘Everybody in Belgium has heard of production house Shooting Star, Soeur Sourire. She had a hit song in which made the children’s hit Peter the 1960s that went like “Dominique- Bell. nique-nique…”. But her tale is quite ‘I’ve wanted to do this for years. I’ve tragic – she ended up killing herself,’ talked about it many times. There are says Coninx.‘We’re due to start so many versions of the legend out shooting in the autumn.’ there – I’ve done a lot of research. Born Jeanine Deckers in 1933, Sister I think that I’m ready to pull it off Smile shot to fame in the 1960s for a now – before I was too young. I know series of songs she had originally what I want to do but I just need to written for the other nuns in her con- find the time to sit down and write vent. She was the only Belgian to top it,’ says the director. the charts in the United States. Coninx’s version will draw heavily on Fame proved too much. She left the Belgian novelist Charles de Coster’s convent and moved in with a close 1869 retelling of the legend as well female friend, Annie Pescher. They set as his own research. up a school for autistic children but ‘The Germans say he is German. when this was threatened with The Belgians say he is Belgian. There closure by the authorities, she and are even Dutch influences in there. Pescher killed themselves in a suicide You can find traces of Jester Till pact. dating back to the 12th Century but In 1966, director Henry Koster cast De Coster, who wrote his version of Debbie Reynolds in The Singing Nun, the story in the 18th Century, placed it the MGM production that was loosely in the 16th Century. It’s very complex. based on the first part of her life. On one level, it’s also telling the story Even that film presents her as of Belgium - how it started and the someone completely unprepared for characteristics of its people. her new found fame (like appearing ‘It interests me not so much for the on The Ed Sullivan Show) and the legend but more for its parallels with unwanted side-effects that come what is going on today. The conflicts with it. that arise in Jester Till are not unlike those of Bosnia, Rwanda – where JESTER TILL violence suddenly flares-up without Aside from this, Coninx is also in the warning.’ Coninx just can’t help throes of developing a number of bringing the past into the present. dream projects of his own. These Melanie Goodfellow include a documentary examining the rise of the far right in Belgium and across the rest of Europe. ‘It’s something that worries me a lot. It’s a difficult subject to tackle here in STIJN CONINX Belgium. I’m not just interested in STIJN CONINX’ (1957) WORK AS A DIRECTOR INCLUDES: what is going on here but also 2005 - The Kavijaks (de kavijaks) – television series beyond. But it’s early days so it’s 2004 - Visions of Europe (‘Self Portrait’ segment) difficult to say too much about it,’ he 2003 - Sea of Silence comments. 1998 - When The Light Comes (Licht) Beyond this, Coninx also hopes to get 1993 - Daens a long-gestated live action film about 1990 - Koko Flanel the European folk hero Jester Till (Till 1987 - Hector i Eulenspiegel) off the ground. He is The Kavijaks

flandersiMAGe $ 27 DOC TALES MY DAD the revolutionary priest

FRESH FROM THE SUCCESS OF HIS AWARD-WINNING GRADUATION DOCUMENTARY MADE IN ITALY, A HIGHLY PERSONAL PORTRAIT OF THE ITALIAN MARBLE-QUARRYING TOWN CARRARA THAT TOUCHES ON HIS FATHER’S BEGINNINGS AS A SCULPTOR, PROMISING YOUNG FILMMAKER FABIO WUYTACK IS SET TO DELVE DEEPER INTO HIS FATHER’S PAST IN PADRE FRANCISCO. i Fabio and his dad

Documentary filmmaker Fabio People spontaneously started collabo- evoked a medieval law dating back to Wuytack’s dad Frans isn’t quite like rating with him and in no time it inquisition times to eject Wuytack’s other dads – prior to meeting and became a movement, organizing father from the priesthood. Frans has marrying Fabio’s mother, he was a mass-demonstrations with strong since directed his energies into poetry priest with a revolutionary bent who demands for clean water and work,’ and art but still remains politically stirred up disquiet among the poor recounts Wuytack. engaged. ‘He went out to Iraq to act and oppressed just about everywhere It was not long before he fell foul of as a human shield during the first he went. the authorities and was expelled. Gulf War. I was about eight-years-old. ‘After becoming a priest, he was sent Back home, he applied the ideals of During the Yugoslav War he got so to South America on an evangelic Liberation Theology in Antwerp, upset by what he saw on television mission but instead of doing what becoming one of the leaders of wild- that he piled up our van with medical was expected of him – blessing the cat strikes that brought its port to a supplies and set off for the Bosnian upper classes and providing them standstill in 1973. In trouble with the border,’ recalls the director. with non-stop confirmation that they authorities back home, he returned to Wuytack’s Padre Francisco will focus were doing a great job – he moved Venezuela, entering the country on his father’s return to Venezuela into the slums of Caracas,’ explains clandestinely to join legendary some 30 years after he was kicked Wuytack. communist guerilla leader Douglas out. He and his father were due to set Frans, or Padre Francisco as he was Bravo and his men in the jungle, off for the country as this article went known then, arrived in the where they had decamped to escape to press. Venezuelan capital in the 1960s just the army.‘He got bored of hiding out ‘My dad was on a blacklist for more as Liberation Theology, which advo- in the jungle and went back to the than 30 years but in 1999 he made cated the church should be involved city against the guerillas’ wishes. They enquiries about whether he could in the struggle for economic and said they could no longer be responsi- return and was told he could,’ he says. political justice, was beginning to ble for his safety. A few months later ‘I’d like to look into the history of the take off across Latin America. he was arrested,’ continues Wuytack. country as well as its present and Wuytack is now set to explore his He was tortured and sentenced to 17 future.’Wuytack hopes they will be father’s adventures in Venezuela in a years prison for his activities but was able to visit the jungle where his documentary entitled Padre Francisco. expelled rather than made to serve father hid out, the slums where he out his time in a Venezuelan jail. worked and also meet some of the DOUGLAS BRAVO key figures in his life at that period. ‘He started working in the slums BLACKLIST without a well-defined plan but with In the meantime, conservative MOHAMMED TAMIN i Fabio Wuytack conviction and lots of dedication. Belgian Bishop Van Peetegem had Amnesty International is partly

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financing the project. The body pre- Academy in Brussels. It was inspired Wuytack and a small crew set-off for miered Wuytack’s first film, a short by a piece of Lumière Brothers Carrara where they interviewed about Palestinian surgeon footage showing a steam engine quarry workers and owners, a local Mohammed Tamin entitled Two emerging from a tunnel. It is just one priest, old friends of his parents, a Hands, at the Amnesty International of a thousands such images captured railway enthusiast, who keeps a scale Film Festival in Amsterdam last year. by the cinema pioneers at the turn of model of the old railway that used to The director met Ramallah-based the 20th century. cut through the mountains around Tamin while the surgeon was on a ‘We were doing research into the Carrara in his garage, and even the course in Ghent.‘We struck up a con- early days of film and ended up local cinema-owner. versation in a bar somewhere. He told watching some Lumière stuff,’ Wuytack ended up with an endearing me about life back in Ramallah. By recounts Wuytack.‘The minute I saw portrait of Carrara, past and present. the end of the conversation, I felt like the train coming out of the tunnel I At the same time, he delves into his exploding, I started to feel his ten- knew I had been there. I knew it was own roots returning to the now sion, his sense of claustrophobia,’ Carrara.’ He had spent time there abandoned house where his parents explains Wuytack. training to be a sculptor before decid- once lived.‘In some ways Made in Despite his emotional reaction to ing to go into film. Beyond that, it Italy is a portrait of an Italy which is now disappearing. It’s so Italian. You see the guys on their scooters with their mobiles – that is the Italy of today but that’s not the Italy I’m in love with.’Wuytack plays with the documentary format, inter-cutting interviews and shots of Carrara’s majestic mountains with speeded up Keystone Cops-style sequences i Two Hands i Two Hands featuring himself and his tiny crew Tamin’s tale, the resulting work is was also where his parents had spent on their quest. He even tampers with remarkably restrained. It features the early years of the marriage and the original archive material, insert- Tamin walking around a Belgian park where he had been conceived. ing himself into the scene.‘I was talking about the chaos in his ‘Carrara is, of course, famous for its making an associative reconstruction. overstretched hospital following a marble and it also has a history of It’s not like reconstructing reality as it clash between Palestinians and the political radicalism – it hosted an is. It’s more like reconstructing Israeli army. These accounts are important anarchist conference in the something that’s not there. It’s not inter-cut with images of the palms 1960s – but the fact the Lumiere objective – it’s a creative way of of his hands pressed against a Brothers had passed through Carrara dialoguing with reality,’ he windowpane. wasn’t really known,’ says Wuytack. comments. It will be interesting to ‘Two young guys are brought in on The young director had a mission – to see what sort of approach the young stretchers. You treat one. The other take the footage back to Carrara to director uses in Padre Francisco. carries on screaming for help but you work out exactly where it had been Melanie Goodfellow only have two hands,’ recounts Tamin. shot. Amazingly, the Lumière Brothers Association gave him permission to LUMIÈRE BROTHERS use the footage.‘Everybody told me it Wuytack’s first medium-length docu- would be impossible to get permission mentary Made in Italy is a far more but I wrote to them about the project light-hearted affair – a whimsical por- and they agreed,’ says Wuytack.‘I think trait of the Italian marble-quarrying they liked the originality of my propos- town of Carrara that also delves into al, the joyful and playful way I dealt his parents’ past and his own roots. with the archive material.’ He made the film as part of his stud- ies at the Audiovisual Art Department ASSOCIATIVE RECONSTRUCTION i (Documentary Film) at the Sint-Lukas In the summers of 2003 and 2004, Fabio Wuytack

flandersiMAGe $ 29 AV GUIDE The Ghent THERAPY GHENT AND THE MOVING IMAGE testing ground for how the film office types of practical problems.‘Our unit FOUND EACH OTHER WAY BEFORE should operate later on. Back then, has contacts at numerous levels with- THE LUMIÈRE BROTHERS SHOT THEIR the production received a grant from in the large network of city services,’ FIRST FILM. IN 1830, LOCAL SCIENTIST City Marketing.‘For me personally, explains Schiettekatte.‘We also very JOSEPH PLATEAU DISCOVERED THE one of the biggest advantages of often hear from people who are keen PERSISTENCE OF VISION PHENOME- Ghent is that no streets in the city to offer access to their own private NON THAT FORMS THE BASIS OF centre are perfectly straight, which properties as locations.’ CINEMATOGRAPHY. THE CITY ALSO improves the photography of the The city can boast an ever increasing HOUSES THE KASK FILM ACADEMY, scenery,’ the producer continues.‘And list of productions it has accommo- THE FIRST IN EUROPE TO OPEN AN no cars are allowed in the centre so dated. Wim Van Driessche, in charge ANIMATION DEPARTMENT, AS WELL you’re not causing huge traffic jams of City Promotion and Sports, names AS THE RESPECTED FLANDERS when scenes are shot in the centre. just a few of the productions that INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AND Ghent is popular these days.’ Provoost have recently chosen to shoot in THE FIRST MODERN MULTIPLEX IN says the fact that other cities such as Ghent: Peter Bell by Maria Peters, Alias EUROPE, KINEPOLIS GENT. Antwerp, Bruges and Ostend have by Jan Verheyen, Lieven Debrauwer’s IT THEREFORE SHOULDN'T COME AS A launched similar offices proves that award-winning Pauline & Paulette, SURPRISE THAT GHENT WAS ALSO Meldpunt Film works. He's now even Dany Deprez’s Science Fiction and i Jan Schiettekatte THE FIRST IN THE FLANDERS REGION planning to move his own offices to Geoffrey Enthoven’s Vidange perdue. TO DEVELOP ITS ‘MELDPUNT FILM’, Ghent. And in Frank Van Passel’s Villa des A FILM OFFICE WHICH IS DESIGNED Roses, most of the early 20th Century TO BETTER ACCOMMODATE FILM AND LARGE NETWORK Paris exteriors were actually shot in TELEVISION CREWS. Initially part of the City Marketing Ghent.‘We also hope that more and Fund, Meldpunt Film eventually more foreign filmmakers will come to It was Ghent Mayor Frank Beke who became the responsibility of the city’s Flanders thanks to the Belgian tax i Erwin Provoost in 1999 set in motion the creation of events department. Jan Schiettekatte, shelter system. Furthermore, we a one-stop city film office, the who runs the department, further intend to bring together the city’s key ‘Meldpunt Film’. One year earlier, developed the idea of a central desk cultural institutions in Ghent to out- production house MMG had launched line a final strategy.’ the television series Cops (Flikken), ‘FILM OFFERS A UNIQUE ONE-TIME These institutions which follows the adventures of a CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENERAL IMAGE include Arts Centre number of policemen and police- Vooruit, which is OF A CITY’ - WIM VAN DRIESSCHE, women in Ghent. Still, as Cops pro- something of a i Paul Teerlinck ducer Erwin Provoost points out, GHENT CITY MARKETING magnet to young Ghent city administrators had already people with a warmly welcomed filmmakers back in aimed at facilitating and supporting strong interest in theatre, dance, con- the 70s.‘Such a tradition will not be production companies that wish to certs, video and exhibitions; the given up easily,’ notes Provoost. But shoot on location in Ghent. Today, SMAK Museum for Contemporary Art; pre-production on Cops started long Meldpunt Film offers logistical sup- the Flanders International Film before Meldpunt Film was launched. port, gives assistance in finding suit- Festival and the internationally i Wim Van Driessche In a way, the series was the ideal able locations and helps solve all respected KASK film academy.

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LOCATION DATABASE the City Council. Ghent is a wonderful As City Council Secretary Paul place with lots of opportunities, but Teerlinck points out, although the city perhaps the city should get in touch is happy to offer assistance to any with the New York film office about productions which approach it for the support it offers to filmmakers. help, Ghent has not yet really been We all want it to be well organised. actively marketed as a shooting Ghent deserves this, but we should i Steve + Sky location. For instance, Ghent currently give it a lot of thought.' However, he GHENT IN A NUTSHELL lacks the funds to invite production notes, 'Ghent has changed Known as the City of Flowers, and companies from overseas to come dramatically and improved with more listed historial buildings and see the city and what it has to enormously over the past 10 years.’ than any other Belgian city, Ghent, offer. However, he notes that,‘The City Hall decision makers are aware with its cobbled streets, canals, Flanders International Film Festival that, in order to have a real impact, gabled houses, two castles and five has already suggested improving the debate will have to consider abbeys is fast becoming a popular communication and promotion of whether or not the city should offer film location. Meldpunt Film by attending the financial incentives to productions Alongside the beautifully preserved Cannes Film Festival.’ which undertake a major part of their architecture, Ghent also boasts 19 Van Driessche hopes that additional shoot in Ghent. museums. As a university city, Ghent has a young and lively nightlife with promotional efforts such as an Schiettekatte believes that there are nearly 300 pubs and cafes in the international flyer and a booth at this several possible scenarios for centre alone, whilst the Patershol year's Flanders International Film financial incentives.‘We are faced district is renowned for its many Festival will also help. with talented young filmmakers or excellent restaurants tucked away Dirk Impens, the Ghent-based students to whom we could grant down cobbled lanes. producer of the Academy Award- financial support with no payback nominated film Daens and Steve + obligations later on. But there could KEY FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION Sky, suggests that to facilitate also be a system of interest-free loans PARTNERS IN GHENT* location hunting, a website should be aimed at Ghent-based production Fobic Films created with photo galleries of places companies making commercial Mariano Van Hoof labelled with useful information for productions. A third possibility is a Nieuwe vaart 118 box 48 filmmakers who are interested in loan at a commercial rate, for B-9000 Ghent/Belgium T: +32-9 329 00 52 shooting in Ghent. Van Driessche instance when international E: [email protected] promises that such a database will be production companies wish to shoot Lumière Productie up and running ‘within the next year’. in Ghent.’ He believes that it will be Jan De Clercq something for the new Ghent City Handelsdokcenter - Stapelplein 70 box 302 SECOND GEAR Council to decide after the fall 2006 B-9000 Ghent/Belgium T : +32-9 235 40 20 ‘Perhaps we should now be aiming to local elections. E: [email protected] create more detailed levels of Van Driessche says that local Menuet support,’ says Provoost, who calls for politicians should not forget that Dirk Impens an ‘interim evaluation’ of the system although ‘film offers a unique Ferdinand Lousbergkaai 105 to find out whether it meets its goals one-time contribution to the general B-9000 Ghent/Belgium T: +32-9 235 73 70 and to find out whether adjustments image of a city, a television series E: [email protected] are needed.‘This should be done does this repeatedly, week after week. A Private View before going any further.’ It should therefore be considered a Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem, Mieke De Wulf ‘We must ask ourselves whether we powerful tool in city marketing.’TV Lange Violettestraat 237 really want it and determine whether show Cops, for example, has had a B-9000 Ghent/Belgium T: +32-9 240 10 00 it is not one of the city’s recent similar effect on tourism in Ghent as E: [email protected] cultural whims,’ adds Impens.‘Such a a film like Amélie had for Paris. (*incomplete list) service needs to be backed 100% by Simon Wullens

flandersiMAGe $ 31 SHINY HAPPY THIS TIME FLANDERS IMAGE TAKES YOU TO SUCH EXOTIC LOCATIONS AS A PEOPLE OMNI-PRESENCE OF FLEMISH AUDIOVISUAL CREAT

g HUESCA, 18 JUNE - FLEMISH HELMER DOUGLAS BOSWELL RECEIVES THE JOSÉ MANUEL PORQUET CRITICS AWARD AT THE HUESCA FILM FESTIVAL FOR HIS SHORT ROMANCE

i ANNECY, 9 JUNE - THEY ALL CAME TO CELEBRATE THE PRESENCE OF FLEMISH ANIMATION IN ANNECY, AND TO SALUTE THE CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND THIS YEAR'S 'LE LAPIN' FESTIVAL REEL

g CANNES, 15 MAY - BELGIAN FINANCE MINISTER DIDIER REYNDERS VISITED THE BELGIAN BOOTH AT THE CANNES MARKET TO DISCUSS THE BELGIAN TAX SHELTER SYSTEM TO BOTH REGULARS AND FIRST-TIMERS. THIS WHILE PETER GHESQUIERE'S SHORT MOONGLOW GOT SELECTED FOR OFFICIAL COMPETITION.

i BRUSSELS, 7 JUNE - JAN VERHEYEN PRESENTS THE CAST OF GILLES (BUITENSPEL), HIS NEW FAMILY MOVIE WHICH IS SCHEDULED FOR A DECEMBER 2005 OPENING

32 $ flandersiMAGe SHINY ANNECY, BRUSSELS AND CANNES, TO NAME JUST A FEW, TO CELEBRATE THE HAPPY TIONS, AND THEIR CREATORS, AROUND THE GLOBE. PEOPLE

g BRUSSELS, 3 MAY - WHILE SHOOTING STAR MARIE VINCK WON THE JOSEPH PLATEAU AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS (FOR HER PERFORMANCE IN HILDE VAN MIEGHEM'S THE KISS), IT WAS FELIX VAN GROENINGEN'S STEVE + SKY THAT GRABBED BELGIUM'S OSCAR-EQUIVALENT FOR BEST FILM. BEST SOUNDTRACK WENT TO SOULWAX, ALSO FOR STEVE + SKY

i BRUSSELS, 6 JULY - THE EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL IN BRUSSELS PRESENTED THE THREE DOCUMENTARIES MADE IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE VAF DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP (SEE ALSO PAGES 4 AND 5 OF THIS ISSUE). HERE WE SEE STEVEN, MICHA AND TONE OVERWHELMED BY COMPLIMENTS AT THE AFTER-SHOW RECEPTION;

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i CANNES, 11 APRIL - THEY WERE ALL GOLDEN ROSE OF LUCERNE NOMINATED THERE AT THE FLANDERS IMAGE MIPTV FATA MORGANA FORMAT, THE BOOTH: BELGIUM'S KEY PLAYERS AND INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF KIKA & BOB TOP TELEVISION-MAKERS NETWORKING ANIMATED TV SERIES, AS WELL AS THE WITH COLLEAGUES FROM AROUND THE HIGHLY ENTERTAINING MAN BITES WORLD. TOP SELLERS INCLUDED THE DOG DAILY SHOW.

h MARSEILLE, 30 JUNE - PRODUCER PAUL PAUWELS RECEIVES THE EBU GOLDEN LINK AWARD FOR MOST PRESTIGIOUS EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY CO-PRODUCTION AT THIS YEAR'S SUNNY SIDE OF THE DOCS FOR LODE DESMET'S REQUIEM OF A CUP FINAL

f COLOGNE, 21 APRIL - THE STARS WERE OUT AT THE GERMAN PREMIÈREOF DOMINIQUE DERUDDERE'S THE WEDDING PARTY

flandersiMAGe $ 33 FINAL Photo: Kris Dewitte CUT

DAAN SPREADS HIS WINGS As well as writing some of the music for Ivan Boeckmans band Dead Man Ray. Their first encounter with film was and Guy Lee Thys' new film Suspect, Belgian pop idol Daan when they composed the score for animated film Stuyven also makes his feature film acting debut in it, the Transatlantic, and soundscapes for Hanzel & Gretzel's video new feature from the makers of Kassablanka. (Our photo- installation The Hamlet Machine. In 1999, the band put grapher Kris Dewitte was on the set when Stuyven literally together a new score for an old Flemish film, the campy threw himself into this new adventure.) According to Thys, At the Drop of a Head (Café zonder bier, 1962), starring the film is about a ‘15-year-old Lolita who unleashes a Belgium's only real cowboy, Bobbejaan Schoepen. witch-hunt against her stepfather. And you don't need to The new score combines Dead Man Ray's compositions know any more than that.’ Knowing the filmmakers, and with fragments of the original soundtrack. After releasing with sexual abuse as its subject matter, it's a fair bet that his first solo album, Profools, in 1999, Stuyven wrote the Suspect will stir up some controversy among cinemagoers. soundtracks for Alex Stockman's I Know I'll See Your Face Starring newcomer Zoë de Roovere as 15-year-old Sandy, Again (Verboden te zuchten, 2001), Dorothée the cast also includes Gene Bervoets as the stepfather, Vandenberghe's Girl (Meisje, 2001) and for Philippe Karlijn Sileghem, Ellen ten Damme, Elias Mentzel and Joke Blasband's Step By Step (2002). The influence of his work Devynck. for film on his music was particularly evident on his Originally a graphic designer, Stuyven always had a keen album Bridge Burner. interest in music and together with Rudy Trouvé set up the In 2004, he released his third album, Victory.

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WORLD PREMIERE EUROPEAN PREMIERE 2005 TORONTO 2005 SAN SEBASTIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FILM FESTIVAL

PRIME TIME PRESENTS NATALI BROODS, JOSSE DE PAUW, INA GEERTS, JOHAN LEYSEN, JOHANNA TER STEEGE, PETER VAN DEN BEGIN MUSIC BY PETER VAN LAERHOVEN SOUND BY SENJAN JANSEN EDITING BY NICO LEUNEN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY FRANK VAN DEN EEDEN PRODUCED BY ANTONINO LOMBARDO CO PRODUCERS JEROEN BEKER AND FRANS VAN GESTEL SCREENPLAY BY FIEN TROCH DIRECTED BY FIEN TROCH

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