Exprmntl

  • Runtime68 min
  • DirectorBrecht Debackere
  • GenreDocumentary
  • Released2016

also available on

Written & directed by Brecht Debackere | Edited by Beppe Leonetti | Produced by Steven Dhoedt | Sound-editor Boris Debackere

With JONAS MEKAS I AGNES VARDA I HARUN FAROCKI I PETER KUBELKA I JEAN-JAQUES LEBEL I BIRGIT HEIN I ERIC DE KUYPER I BORIS LEHMAN I ROLAND LETHEM I WERNER NEKES I GODFRIED-WILLEM RAES I MICHAEL SNOW I ROBERT STÉPHANE I GABRIELLE CLAES I JACQUES LEDOUX

A co-production with CINEMATEK | RTBF | VRT

Supported by FLANDERS AUDIOVISUAL FUND | BELGIAN TAX SHELTER


In the early days of cinema all films were experimental. Filmmakers actively explored this new medium, searching for ways to tell a story, to convey  leaning and spread ideas by structuring moving images in time. While Hollywood would start growing into a major industry in the late 1920s, others would continue the search for innovation and question its hegemony. Their work would seep slowly yet steadily into the mainstream and help shape our image culture and visual language into what it is today.

Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium. To celebrate cinema’s 50 year existence, they put together a side program showcasing the medium in all its shapes and forms: surrealist film, absolute film, dadaist films, abstract film,… The side program would soon become a festival in its own right: ‘EXPRMNTL’, dedicated to experimental cinema, and would become a mythical gathering of the avant-garde…

EXPRMNTL knew only five editions, in 1949, 1958, 1963, 1967 and 1974 but those five editions became known as the most legendary of all experimental film festivals.

Amongst the visitors settling down in Knokke in wintertime between Christmas and New Years: Yoko Ono, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, Jonas Mekas, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Roman Polanski, Stan Brakhage, Nam June Paik, Jeffrey Shaw… Most of them as students or early-career filmmakers.

Why did Yoko Ono receive a jail sentence? What did Polanski, Godard, Mekas, Varda and a number of other guests do, crammed in a hotel room? How did Holger Meins, future Rote Armee Fraktion member, end up in Knokke?

The festival was a meeting place for filmmakers, avant-garde artists, the Belgian policital elite and beau-monde. The mundane Knokke, the ‘Saint-Tropez on the Belgian coast’, consequently wasn’t spared from the clash between bourgeoisie and counterculture.

EXPRMNTL tells the story of experimental film through the history of this festival, a history which questions the nature of film and how a large part of how we understand our world is based on our understanding of moving images.

screenings

  • 12/01/2019 18:30 London Short Film Festival

in the media

Night of the Experimental Film curator Sofie Verdoodt selects 7 Belgian movies

If you are in desperate need of a quick and dazzling (but unavoidably incomplete) introduction to this phenomenon – and believe me, you are! -, this documentary is worth watching, and moreover highly enjoyable.

Read the full article

Knokke EXPRMNTL

In zijn nieuwe documentaire EXPRMNTL belicht Brecht Debackere een tot de verbeelding sprekende episode uit ons culturele geheugen. Tussen 1949 en 1974 was Knokke warempel het Walhalla voor de liefhebber van radicale cinema, underground muziek en bandeloze experimenteerdrift tijdens het filmfestival EXPRMNTL dat er vier maal georganiseerd werd. En dit is relevanter dan ooit nu het debat rond vertoningsmogelijkheden voor experimenteel werk hoog oplaait.

Lees het volledige artikel

Lang leve de experimentele en subversieve cinema

EXPRMNTL, het door het filmarchief ondersteunde festival van de experimentele film dat Scorsese een duwtje in de rug gaf, zou van eind jaren 40 tot begon jaren 70 maar vijf maal georganiseerd worden maar bleek achteraf toonaangevend en cruciaal te zijn geweest voor onder meer de Amerikaanse underground cinema (Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Marie Menken) in de sixties.

Lees het volledige artikel

Sabzian: Ruben Demasure

Read the full Sabzian article

Kutsite: Jan Sulmont

Net als die andere vrolijke documentaire The Sound of Belgium fêteert EXPRMNTL de Belgische avant-garde attitude van eertijds. Dat resulteert in een feel good metafilm van formaat.

Read the full Kutsite review
    • 2018
    • On Art Festival
    • In Competition
    • 2018
    • Asolo Art Film Festival
    • In Competition - Winner Milipiero Award for Best Soundtrack
    • 2017
    • Quest Festival Hanoi
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • Singapore National Gallery
    • 2017
    • Message To Man
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • SUFF – Sydney Underground Film Festival
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • MIEFF – Moscow International Experimental Film Festival
    • Opening film
    • 2017
    • FILAF – Festival International du Livre sur l’Art et du Film
    • In Competition - Winner Prix Spécial du Jury
    • 2017
    • Indie Lisboa
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • Jeonju International Film Festival
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • Full Frame Festival
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • Docville
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • FIFA – Festival International du Film sur l’Art
    • Official selection
    • 2017
    • Alchemy Film Festival
    • 2016
    • BAFF – Brussels Art Film Festival
    • In Competition - Winner Prix du Festival sur l'Art
    • 2016
    • London Film Festival
    • International Premiere
    • 2016
    • L’Age d’Or
    • Opening film
  • Runtime68 min
  • DirectorBrecht Debackere
  • GenreDocumentary
  • Released2016

also available on

in the media

Night of the Experimental Film curator Sofie Verdoodt selects 7 Belgian movies

If you are in desperate need of a quick and dazzling (but unavoidably incomplete) introduction to this phenomenon – and believe me, you are! -, this documentary is worth watching, and moreover highly enjoyable.

Read the full article

Knokke EXPRMNTL

In zijn nieuwe documentaire EXPRMNTL belicht Brecht Debackere een tot de verbeelding sprekende episode uit ons culturele geheugen. Tussen 1949 en 1974 was Knokke warempel het Walhalla voor de liefhebber van radicale cinema, underground muziek en bandeloze experimenteerdrift tijdens het filmfestival EXPRMNTL dat er vier maal georganiseerd werd. En dit is relevanter dan ooit nu het debat rond vertoningsmogelijkheden voor experimenteel werk hoog oplaait.

Lees het volledige artikel

Lang leve de experimentele en subversieve cinema

EXPRMNTL, het door het filmarchief ondersteunde festival van de experimentele film dat Scorsese een duwtje in de rug gaf, zou van eind jaren 40 tot begon jaren 70 maar vijf maal georganiseerd worden maar bleek achteraf toonaangevend en cruciaal te zijn geweest voor onder meer de Amerikaanse underground cinema (Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Marie Menken) in de sixties.

Lees het volledige artikel

Sabzian: Ruben Demasure

Read the full Sabzian article

Kutsite: Jan Sulmont

Net als die andere vrolijke documentaire The Sound of Belgium fêteert EXPRMNTL de Belgische avant-garde attitude van eertijds. Dat resulteert in een feel good metafilm van formaat.

Read the full Kutsite review