Henri Storck (Ostend 1907 - Brussels 1999) lived through the whole history of cinema, passing from silent to sound, and from experimental to commercial films. He is recognised as a pioneer of Belgian cinema and a key figure in documentary. Misère au Borinage, which he co-directed with Joris Ivens in 1933, has become a classic of the 'cinema of reality' with which he was most closely associated. In 1937 he made Les maisons de la misère, denouncing slum housing in the same pamphleteering style, and in 1938 Le patron est mort, an account of the funeral of Emile Vandervelde, leader of the Belgian Labour Party.