Even more than a documentary about the Swiss writer, Ursula Meier made a film in which disappearance is at work. Between a voice-over with imprecise memories, testimonies that grope in the dark and places that disappear, it is ultimately the very experience of reading that is revealed.

The urinal designed by Marcel Duchamp in 1917 represented an artistic revolution. Duchamp was considered as a genius. Filmmaker Barbara Visser portrays a certain baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who, according to new research, was in fact behind the idea. With a sense of humour, Visser, a true specialist in what is real and what is fake, plunges us into this fascinating investigation.

In 1964, Jean-Marie Drot made a documentary with Marcel Duchamp in which the filmed and the filmer play a game of chess. It's an opportunity to discuss Duchamp’s artist life, his exile, his childhood, his oeuvre, ... This moment is interwoven with images shot later of the artist's works. Preceded by Anémic cinéma: this black-and-white short film shot on 35 mm, in which optical discs and spoonerisms alternate, is a classic of experimental cinema, made by Marcel Duchamp in 1926.

In Budapest, Mihály lives alone in his house surrounded by trees. He seems to suffer from loneliness. For unclear reasons, his beloved daughter, designer and jeweller Réka Fekete, has refused to see him for years. Filmmaker Eneos Çarka discreetly captures the bonds of the past that have shaped them and that still haunt this place (The Silence of The Banana Trees). German director Elena Alvarez Lutz accompanies Australian jewellery designer Helen Britton on her mental and physical wanderingss. An inquisitive focus guides their journey, from Australia to Germany. Portrait of a fascinating huntress coming from elsewhere (Hunter from Elsewhere).

 THE SILENCE OF THE BANANA TREES - Eneos Çarka: IN COMPETITION

From 2006 to 2023, filmmaker Marie Losier followed Canadian singer Peaches, a feminist and queer icon as well as the crazy queen of the electro punk scene. A look behind the scenes of the creative process but also a dive into the intimate life of a woman who, at the age of 57, continues to shatter dictates and taboos.

 IN COMPETITION

After living in Brussels for 30 years, writer Xavier Queipo is preparing to return to his native country. His friend, filmmaker Hugo Amoedo Canal, who arrived in Belgium more recently, films his move in Super 8, his memories, the sealing of the moving boxes, … He also questions his own exile and life as he watches his son grow up. (Caisses fermées, caisse ouvertes). In 2018, at the age of 102, Mam decides to call it a day. In her country, France, you can't decide that for yourself at the moment. But she doesn’t care, she will do it through Belgium. And just as well, her granddaughter Karine lives there. Filmmaker Karine Birgé tells the story of this journey using object theatre and unconventional storytelling. Along the way, Doctor Sauveur, Frankenstein, Chantal Goya and spring-loaded rabbits become her companions, helping her to stay on course and weather the storm of emotions (Bon voyage).

 BON VOYAGE - Karine Birgé: IN COMPETITION

Born in 1960 near Lake Tiberias in Palestine, Hiam Abbas decides to leave her country and her family to pursue an acting career in Europe. Thirty years after this departure, her daughter Lina, now a filmmaker, takes up the camera and goes back in time to understand her mother's trajectory and that of the other women in her family. Guided by her mother, the filmmaker interweaves present-day images with family archives, exploring a history of women who are both resistant and resilient.

 IN COMPETITION

David Bowie, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Edith Piaf, and, of course, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones; all these artists appeared before the lens of Belgian photographer Herman Selleslags. The man, now 80 years old, is preparing to move out of his big house in Antwerp. It's the perfect opportunity to open boxes and discover treasures that have never been shown before. It's also a chance to look back at a complicated family history and a legacy that may be heavier than it seems.

 IN COMPETITION

In 2016, author and photographer Carole Achache takes her own life, shortly before the #Metoo wave. Her daughter, Mona, decides to investigate the threads of her life in order to understand her act of despair. The idea is to ask Marion Cotillard to step into Carole's shoes to tell the story of the literary world of the 1970s and expose its abuses.

 IN COMPETITION

In 1980s West Berlin, artist Jürgen Baldiga records and documents the AIDS crisis as a race against time begins. The thousands of photographs and literary works he left behind are the starting point for this film, which is designed to bear witness to the urge for life at the time, while at the same time acting as a duty of remembrance against the stigmatisation of gay life.

Johan Grimonprez's film takes us on a tragic and complex adventure through a montage of archives, voices, texts, newspaper clippings and, of course, mythical jazz pieces, against the backdrop of Congo's independence. In a brilliant demonstration, we witness the undermining work carried out by the USA to thwart the union of the newly independent African nations. The United States will use unconventional weapons to do so: Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald, to name a few.

 IN COMPETITION

Danish Brazil-based artist Sissel Morrell Dargis infiltrates a secret and illegal community: the baloeiros. These men, organised into teams, dedicate themselves to manufacturing giant coloured paper balloons for the simple purpose and pleasure of watching them fly away. In true thriller style, the filmmaker takes us into the underworld of these gangs hunted by the police, using thriller codes to tell us how she manages to win their trust as well as a friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Il padiglione sull'acqua is a sensory and contemplative stroll through the maze of the Brion Tomb, a masterpiece by visionary Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. Although originally from Venice, this artist was deeply fascinated and inspired by Japanese culture and philosophy and its reflections on beauty and harmony with sacred nature. A true jewel of modern architecture, the Brion Tomb is a bridge between Italy and Japan, a window to the East from the West, inviting us on a journey, both aesthetic and philosophical, and immersing us in the world of this fascinating architect.

Alix Cléo Roubaud was born in 1952 and died in 1983 at the age of 31. She left behind more than 600 photographs that are now in major collections. Three years before her death, this brilliant jack-of-all-trades and friend of filmmaker Jean Eustache agreed to star in this short film, commenting on her photographs to Jean Eustache's son Boris. What appears to be a classic exercise gradually becomes a thoroughly surrealist piece (Les Photos d'Alix). The film takes us on an exploration through Pieter Bruegel's painting Hunters in the Snow, an innocent-looking winter scene with hunters, peasants, women, men and children playing on the ice. However, the voices of art historians Reindert Falkenburg and Michel Weemans point out how deceptive appearances can be... (Piège à voir)

 PIÈGE À VOIR - Thomas Sipp: IN COMPETITION

Ula Dudziak, a young musician with a great love for jazz, decides in the 1960s to leave Poland to pursue her passion and conquer the United States. The film retraces this fascinating and eventful journey as told by the artist herself. Using the extensive Super 8 archives depicting the People's Republic of Poland in the 1960s and the New York of the 1970s and 1980s, she describes her exile and emancipation as an artist alongside Stan Getz, Jaco Pastorius and Bobby McFerrin