The Land of the Enlightened

Savage Film producer Bart Van Langendonck is in Cannes to present his Brussels-based production outfit’s new three-year slate.  Besides brand new projects from the directors the company started with five years ago (i.e. Michaël R. Roskam and Bram Van Paesschen), young filmmakers such as Hans Van Nuffel, Matthias Schoenaerts and Robin Pront are now joining the producer's growing talent pool to develop their own feature-length projects.

Equator is the second feature by Hans Van Nuffel, the 2011 European Film Award® Discovery of the Year winner (for Oxygen). The Faithful (Le fidèle) is the second feature film project from Oscar® nominated director Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead), while Franky will be the directorial debut of critically acclaimed Flemish actor Matthias Schoenaerts.

The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) recently approved funding for 16 documentary projects. The list includes much anticipated projects such as The Land of the Enlightened, which was selected for the IDFA FORUM 2011, Sofie Benoot’s new docu Desert Cantos and Pierre Coulibeuf’s La beauté du Guerrier which was scripted by Jan Fabre. The number of documentary projects supported is another clear sign for the vibrancy of Docs from Flanders. The documentary quality doesn’t go unnoticed internationally, just last month an impressive total of 15 doc titles from Flanders got presented in several IDFA programmes.

An impressive total of 11 feature or average length documentaries are to receive production support. Brussels-based production outfit Savage Film can start planning production for two documentaries: Jeroen Van der Stock’s Japandoned (RIP Japan) and Pieter-Jan De Pue’s The Land of the Enlightened. Production outfit Sophimages is also working on two titles, namely Diane Perelstejn’s The Life & The Art van Kathleen Ferrier and Peter Woditsch’s In the Name of the Fater, ..., Confessions.

An unprecedented total of four projects from Flanders are selected for this year’s IDFA Forum, IDFA's international co-financing market for documentaries and Europe's largest gathering of filmmakers, television commissioning editors, and independent documentary producers.

The record-number of Forum projects is another sign of the re-found dynamism in the Flemish documentary sector. The four projects are: Fons Feyaerts’ The King of Mont Ventoux (prod: Associate Directors) is a thrilling virtual competition that puts five legendary cycling heroes in an unprecedented race beyond the boundaries of time, crossing the verge of sports.

A record-breaking haul of eleven documentaries and four docu projects from Flanders have been selected  for this year’s IDFA, the international Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (16-27 November). Works from Jeremy De Ryckere and Kristof Bilsen, who recently graduated from RITS and NFTS (UK) respectively,  are shown in the Student Documentary competition. The other entries feature in the Reflecting Images: Panorama, Paradocs section and IDFA pitching Forum.

Both Jeremy De Ryckere’s The Heir and Kristof Bilsen’s White Elephant compete for the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary, worth €2,500. The Heir tells the story of a father, Raf, and a son, Dominique, and their relationship to their passion: horse racing, a long family tradition. White Elephant is a documentary about the Central Post Office and its employees in Kinshasa, DR Congo. This grandiose relic of a colonial past has trapped its employees in a frozen timewarp from which they are planning their escape. Last year the Award for Best Student Documentary went to the Flemish doc What’s in a Name by Eva Küpper.