ARTISTS IN FOCUS
Annik Leroy
Memory, history, and human existence are the key elements in the work of Belgian documentarian Annik Leroy. Over a career spanning fifty years, the filmmaker has built a modest yet impressive body of work that remains, unfortunately, too little known in Belgium. CINEMATEK has given Annik Leroy carte blanche to present her films in combination with those of other filmmakers.
Born in 1952, Annik Leroy studied photography at the prestigious La Cambre school in Brussels. While continuing her work in photography, she also directed her first short films there. From her very first attempts, she established a unique style in Belgian documentary, for example in NBC. Made with film stock she received from the Cinémathèque after applying for EXPRMNTL (1974), the film expresses her fierce indignation against the nuclear threat and war in general at the height of the Cold War. The film is particularly striking for the contrast between images and sounds, which act as a counterpoint—a structural form she would also use in her film EKHO, a portrait of a woman after a suicide attempt. This was a painful film, and a precursor to her future work, where the central theme would largely be the approach to trauma.
The introspective, more meditative approach is also a characteristic of this short film and remains a constant in her other works. In 1981, she directed In der Dämmerstunde – Berlin from Dawn to Dusk, a 70-minute film in which she travels through Berlin in the middle of winter with her camera. It is at once a study of the city, an essay on history, and a self-portrait. The devastating legacy of the war is omnipresent, as she gives voice off-screen to Berliners who talk about their past. Annik Leroy approaches the city as a living archive, where ruins, streets, and buildings are the silent witnesses of a tumultuous past.
After an intense period dedicated to photography, she directed her second feature film, Vers la mer, her most renowned work. In this essay film, she travels down the Danube from its source (the Black Forest) to its mouth (the Black Sea). She offers a unique image of the countries she traverses (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania) and the people she meets. The river symbolizes both connection and fragmentation, as she shows how the wounds of the past continue to affect present-day life. She develops this approach even more perceptibly in Tremor – Es ist immer Krieg. For the filmmaker, war is not just a historical fact, but also an existential condition that seems unable to disappear.
In her last film, La Force diagonale, made in collaboration with Julie Morel, she presents four portraits of people who have used art to overcome their traumas. With Hannah Arendt, she also shows how thought itself is a creative force. Annik Leroy invites viewers to reflect, as her films are not only about what is shown but also about what is implicit. Or, as one critic wrote about her work: "It is an invitation to look, to feel, and to explore oneself more deeply".
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Saturday 25.10 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Wednesday 29.10 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Annik Leroy
Personnalité réduite de toutes parts
Die Allseitig reduzierte Personlichkeit - Redupers
- Helke Sander, West Germany 1977 ⁄ Joachim Baumann, Frank Burckner, Eva Gagel ⁄ B&W ⁄ 97' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
Monday 03.11 21:00 LEDOUX Cart
Annik Leroy
Vitalina Varela
- Pedro Costa, Portugal 2019 ⁄ Vitalina Varela, Ventura, Manuel Tavares Almeida ⁄ color ⁄ 124' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
Tuesday 04.11 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Saturday 08.11 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Annik Leroy
Fluchtweg nach Marseille
- Ingemo Engström, Gerhard Theuring, Germany 1977 ⁄ Katharina Thalbach, Rüdiger Vogler, François Mouren-Provensal ⁄ color ⁄ 210' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
Restored version (DCP).
Thursday 06.11 19:00 LEDOUX Cart
Annik Leroy
La Force diagonale
- Julie Morel, Annik Leroy, Belgium 2023 ⁄ B&W ⁄ 144' ⁄ ST - OND: FR - NL
Monday 10.11 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Wednesday 19.11 18:00 PLATEAU Cart
Annik Leroy
Willow Springs
- Werner Schroeter, USA 1972 ⁄ Magdalena Montezuma, Christine Kaufmann, Ila von Hasperg ⁄ color ⁄ 82' ⁄ V: EN - DE ⁄ ST - OND: —
Tuesday 11.11 19:00 LEDOUX Cart
Lectures, introductions, workshops...
Annik Leroy
Vers la mer
- Annik Leroy, Belgium 1999 ⁄ B&W ⁄ 91' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
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Wednesday 12.11 18:00 PLATEAU Cart
Thursday 20.11 20:00 PLATEAU Cart
Annik Leroy
Les Trois Chambres de la mélancolie
Melancholian 3 huonetta
- Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden 2004 ⁄ Pirkko Saisio ⁄ B&W + color ⁄ 106' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
Tuesday 18.11 19:00 LEDOUX Cart
Annik Leroy
Don’t Take It Personally
- Jelena Jureša, Belgium, Croatia 2024 ⁄ Marije Nie, Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz ⁄ color ⁄ 60' ⁄ ST - OND: EN
Saturday 22.11 19:00 LEDOUX Cart
Lectures, introductions, workshops...
OUR STORY
Annik Leroy
Details become the main characters : Our Story
Macumba
- Elfi Mikesch, West Germany 1982 ⁄ Magdalena Moctezuma, Bernd Broaderup, Heinz Emigholz ⁄ color ⁄ 88' ⁄ ST - OND: FR
Trailer for the International Gay and Lesbian Filmfestival Holland
- Annik Leroy ⁄ 2' ⁄ ST - OND: —
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