For this edition, five projects once again emerged, this year entirely dedicated to ‘moving image’. During the school year, each selected group will work together and share their ideas, wishes, and knowledge around social issues and the future. They will build an artistic project together in the course of that process.

You will be able to discover the result at a two-day film festival in May 2024.

The projects

1. A Castle Made of Sand

Artist Vincen Beeckman and Fedasil engage around migration in the urban and European context. The project gives a voice to a group of unaccompanied minors, mainly from Afghanistan. What is their vision of Brussels, their situation, and the worlds they encounter every day? A visual and sound collage will be created from the collected images and sounds, with the idea of producing a film without interruption that brings together all these visions – between abstraction, dreams, poetry, and difficult reality. For the collages, there is additionally the possibility of using original music and songs that were recorded on location. This should add a special touch to the project and to the energy of the Petit-Château residents.

2. Hymnorama

For this project, students from the Kunsthumaniora Brussel and Collectif Mal Temperado are joining forces. They are making a docufilm entitled Hymnorama, which focuses on the reworking of one or more national anthems into a quirky, contemporary version. They see this as a metaphor to reflect on the alarming and uncertain future. They want to show the power, influence, or inspiration that national anthems have – or no longer have – and question where this urge to mark out territory through music comes from. The film will reflect on identity, nationality, and the sense and nonsense of borders. They also create a Next Generation anthem, reflecting their ideas about the world of tomorrow.

3. Wie was ik geweest?/Who had I been?

In collaboration with Ithaka ISK, Common Frames is making a documentary mosaic narrative about the impact of one’s migration on the mental well-being of young people with immigrant status in the Netherlands. Four young people talk about their experience within the intimacy of their own home, their new home. These short stories are framed by images of the 15 young people involved in public places: at school, on public transport, in a shopping mall, at a party or festival. The process of making and displaying their work contributes to identity formation, empathy, and representation of this group of young people. In this way, the project is working towards a media landscape where everyone can participate and where everyone feels seen and heard.

4. InnerEScape

InnerEScape is an initiative of the artist collective KNEPH. Young people find their way in turbulent times. Our contemporary lifestyle has far-reaching consequences on the earth, nature, the cosmos, and on our own being and living with others. The world is in crisis. At the same time, the technological revolution requires reflection and decisiveness. Awareness raising is needed: how far do we go in using and manipulating resources and people? What choices do we make and how can we ensure a humane future? During the creation process, the recruited young people (through ‘Authentical’ and ‘Try-Out alba-Tonuso’) create inner landscapes in which they reflect on the future. This will result in InnerEScape, a poetic, experimental film.

5. Candela

Filmmaker Mariana Machado and Luca School of Arts Brussels join forces. Their film Candela, which means light, candle, or fire in Spanish, portrays the relationship between three Latin American youths and their relationship with a fourth character: the city of Brussels. As for the relationship between the first three characters, it is left to the viewer to interpret whether they are just friends or also lovers. Through a poetic and philosophical point of view, they reflect on how a fresh perspective from a foreigner can provoke new insights and inspirations for a city that is constantly changing and moving forward. The film is a metaphor for the future the young generation of immigrants believes in.