September: OUR QUEER STORY: The Deviative Histories of LGBTQIA+ Cinema

This autumn, ladestructiondesespacesvides is launching the podcast series Our Queer Story: Histoires du cinéma LGBTQIA+. Produced by Studio Balado, Our Queer Story serves as an audio extension of CINEMATEK’s monthly events. To mark this occasion, you are invited to an evening of thoughtful discussion on the history of LGBTQIA+ cinema.

What constitutes the uniqueness of this cinema? What defines a problematic or poor queer film? What is the oldest gay film in history? What is queer science fiction? Can an LGBTQIA+ film be one that was never made? These are some of the questions that Our (Queer) Story attempts to answer.

A discussion with the podcast’s creators and Our Story programmers will be followed by a screening of the classic documentary The Celluloid Closet. The film recounts the foundational history often told of sexual minority cinema: the evolution of gay and lesbian representation in 20th-century Hollywood films.

OCtober: OUR STORY: Massimadi.Brussels: Mapping out our resources in challenging times

The Massimadi Brussels Festival of Black LGBTQIA+ films and arts from Africa and its diasporas celebrates its 10th edition at CINEMATEK on October 3rd and 4th.

In the current context, sociopolitical tensions reveal a troubling rise in hostile discourse against inclusion, diversity, and, more broadly, the concept of a cohesive society (I Don’t Know Who You Are). Black and queer communities are once again at the center of multiple attacks: discriminatory legislation (Sacred Lies, Civil Truths), anti-immigrant rhetoric (L’Échappée), a rollback of fundamental rights, and persistent electoral inequalities (gender gap). These issues are not isolated. They reflect a global climate in which democratic principles are being weakened.

In the face of this reality, we, as stakeholders in Black and queer movements, wish to reaffirm our role in the social fabric. Our goal is not systematic opposition, but the patient construction of a shared future. Every day, women, men, non-binary, queer, and racialized individuals work behind the scenes to ensure the smooth functioning of our institutions: in schools, hospitals, and social services. Their work, though often made invisible (Brother Outsider), is nonetheless essential. These individuals are not on the margins. They are at the core. They deserve recognition, respect (Clashing Differences), and visibility. In this period of uncertainty, it is urgent to rethink our social contract in light of the lived realities of all members of society (I Don’t Know Who You Are). For a robust democracy cannot exist without equality, dialogue, and representation.

Our commitment is simple: to participate actively in this re-foundation, in a spirit of responsibility and openness.

November: OUR STORY: Details become the main characters - Annik Leroy

As part of the "Golden Age" focus dedicated to her work, photographer and filmmaker Annik Leroy presents two films that have left a significant impression on her as part of the Our Story series: Macumba, one of Elfi Mikesch's first fiction features, and the more contemporary Transfariana – Un monstruo grande, a documentary by Joris Lachaise. This program is also an opportunity to rediscover a short but valuable document: a trailer of a few minutes, created by Annik Leroy for the first gay and lesbian film festival in the Netherlands in 1986.

"In 1984, I had already met the feminist film collective Cinemien in Amsterdam and created an exhibition, Vrouwen en de cinema, to celebrate the collective's 10th anniversary. They decided to create the first gay and lesbian film festival in 1986, so I made the trailer for it. At the time, it was shown in all the cinemas in Holland and Amsterdam. I shot it on 16mm color film. In a time-lapse sequence, two young women travel through locations from Brussels to Amsterdam and rush into a cinema to watch re-filmed frames from a sequence in Elfi Mikesch's Macumba and one from Patrice Chéreau's L'Homme blessé, which announce the first gay and lesbian festival in Amsterdam."

— Annik Leroy, 2025

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