Filmmaking in Brussels

The program puts great emphasis on the interaction between the school’s input and the student’s contribution. It builds on skills gathered in a Film or Audio-visual Arts Bachelor Program and offers no specific training anymore in terms of acting directing, lighting, editing, script writing and so forth. Within the broad framework of cinema (including arthouse film, artist’s film, diverse documentary practices, artistic research and non-generic mainstream moviemaking) it offers instead a continuous program of mandatory activities that includes workshops, seminars, lectures, presentations by visiting filmmakers and visual artists, group presentations, group discussions, film screenings and excursions to exhibitions that offer a wide range of ideas and positions from the contemporary field of cinema culture and audio-visual arts.

Students contribute their own knowledge, sensitivities, skills, aspirations, motivation and commitment. In regular peer to peer meetings, they report and communicate with each other on the progress of their graduation project. By using this input and through ongoing dialogue with tutors, lecturers and fellow students, they develop a critical vocabulary and learn to formulate adequate artistic research questions and responses as well as to reach solutions independently, culminating in the showing of a personal and creative finished audio-visual work and dissertation text, where they demonstrate a personal signature, advanced directing skills and a thorough understanding of artistic research methods. 

Mars, Oman, Vanessa del Campo - selected by Visions du Réel 2019

The program is designed to take a closer look at the problems and possibilities that arise when students/future filmmakers develop a work of art. It does not discriminate between narrative or documentary or experimental audio-visual practices. On the contrary, it helps students position themselves in the film practice(s) of their choice and achieve their artistic intentions by understanding the achievements of others. It lets students understand the strategies and methods as well as knowledge and skills involved in the production of audio-visual artwork. Individual practice and reflection are at its very centre: a continuous and independent working pattern that seeks a dialogue with similar as well as different approaches. In this process, the students can rely on a critical dialogue about the work’s artistic, practical and technical dimensions as well as about content matter with personal tutors. 

Students develop writing and speaking skills that enable them to express themselves in a critical and nuanced way about their own and other people’s works. The sharpening of cultural knowledge and sensibilities is geared towards the students’ film practices within a research framework that favours the complementarity of classroom and film set, of theory and practice, of thinking and doing.

Trailer Sons of No One, Hans Vannetelbosch - VAF Wildcard Fiction winner 2017