Gerard-Jan Claes

Because We Are Visual

Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette

A collage of webcams, video blogs and YouTube films reveals that even in the Internet age, things still revolve around love, attention and human contact.

Rain

Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

A poetic portrait of the world-renowned Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris as they mount a new work by famed contemporary choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Rain is a formalist exercise in documentary filmmaking that at times resembles long lost outtakes from The Red Shoes.

Grands Travaux

Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette

Mohamud Mohamed Abdi, Ahmadou Oury Barry

Grands travaux is situated at the Institute Anneessens-Funck, a Dutch-speaking vocational school in the centre of Brussels where young students have come to learn an occupation. The film documents and stages that which gives shape to their lives: the practical assignments and classes at school, football, the ups and downs of their love lives, as well as the ongoing search for housing and employment. Depicting the daily life within the school walls, Grands travaux also aims at sketching an image of Brussels today, placing its youngsters at the very centre.

Mitten

Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette

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.