‘La force diagonale - Annik Leroy & Julie Morel’

La Force diagonale is deployed in two stages. First of all, four portraits in which we learn that practising art or thought has enabled each of the subjects to live through and confront the traumas born of social violence. Annik Leroy and Julie Morel set these four filmed accounts against the works of Hannah Arendt, her thinking inspired by and shot through with her own experiences, theoretical texts like letters to close friends, taken together as aspects of the same journey. This thinking as an active force is then relayed and embodied by the dancer and performer Claire Vivianne Sobottke in a choreography of restrained intensity. 

Both directors will be present for a discussion after the screening.

Annik Leroy (°1952, Brussels) is a cinematographer and director. Among her most important works are the films Vers la mer (1999), TREMOR. Es ist immer Krieg (2017) and installation Meinhof. 3 (2008). Somewhere between speculation and reality, her works explore the dark areas of European history. She taught at ERG and LUCA Hogeschool Sint-Lukas. 

Julie Morel (°1976, Montpellier) is a visual artist and filmmaker who made installations as well as shorter films that were shown at Argos Brussels, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Kunstraum Bethanien, Arte… La Force diagonale (2023) is her first feature film as a co-writer and co-director. Julie Morel teaches at ERG in Brussels since 2019.