White Elephant

Marie-France Collard’s Brussels-Kigali and Kristof Bilsen’s White Elephant won the Mario Ruspoli Award and the Nanook-Jean Rouch Grand Prize respectively at the Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival in paris (10 – 28 Nov). Brussels-Kigali was also selected by the National Commission « Images en Bibliothèques » for distribution in the French public libraries network.

The Nanook-Jean Rouch Grand Prize for White Elephant is worth € 1,500 granted by CNRS Images. White Elephant focuses on the Central Post Office and its employees in Kinshasa, DR Congo. This grandiose relic of the colonial past  has trapped its employees in a frozen time-warp from which they are planning their escape. From past to present, through the cracks in the walls,  and leaks in the ceilings, we glimpse present-day Congo. The documentary is a production of Bram Crols from Associate Directors.

The Flanders audiovisual Fund (VAF) has confirmed support for 19 documentary film projects. The list includes new projects by successful documentary filmmakers such as Klara Van Es, who can start working on Carnotstraat 17, and Manno Lanssens, who received script support for a new doc, Victims.

Carnotstraat 17 is produced by Associate Directors and directed by Klara van Es, who previously delivered quite a performance by scoring a cinema hit with her documentary Lost Down Memory Lane. Carnotstraat 17 is up for development support. Serendipity Films-produced Victims will be director Lanssens’ third release, following the successful Epilogue and the yet-to-screen Begijnen Beginnen Vanbinnen (Beguines Begin From Within).

The Margaret Mead Film Festival (10-13 Nov) in New York has confirmed three Flemish documentaries for its line-up. Both Lotte Stoops’ Grande Hotel, which has the honour of opening the Fest, and Sofie Benoot’s Blue Meridian are selected for the ‘Filmmaker in Person’ programme. Kristof Bilsen’s White Elephant is screening in the shorts programme.

Earlier this year Grande Hotel had its international debut at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. From there it went on to be selected for the prestigious Hot Docs competition in Canada where it received an Honourable Mention. Months later, the film is still popular on the festival circuit as evidenced by the prestigious opening of the Margaret Mead Festival and selections for Silver Docs.

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.