“You would be amazed by the range [of titles] and the topics on the table!” Koen Van Bockstal CEO of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, CEO of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), exclaims. He has just spent two days attending the VAF’s pitch committees for future documentaries. And, no, directors aren’t just tackling the predictable subjects (climate change, fake news etc). They’re branching off down all sorts of unexpected routes.
Documentaries feature very prominently in this year’s hybrid edition of CONNEXT, the annual showcase for features and TV series made in Flanders and Brussels. As far as Van Bockstal is concerned, that is exactly as it should be.
“At the VAF, what we are really striving for is a real diversity in genres we are supporting. Obviously, features film and fiction are very important but documentary is also a very important part of that.”
Why do docs matter? The VAF CEO answers his own question. “In documentaries, you give a voice to authors who can actually give their vision, their interpretation and their concerns about what is happening in the world. In times where you are confronted with more and more very journalistic news, when a lot of the newer generation are just picking up news from social media, be it Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, there is a danger people are staying more and more in their bubble. They’re not really very well informed…”
That’s where docs come in. They also venture into areas which mainstream media rarely treads. As Van Bockstal puts it, the best documentaries are always ready “to go beneath the surface” and “deal with issues in their own voices.”
The VAF sets aside substantial amounts for documentary. It has three funds: the film fund, the media fund and the games fund. Through the film fund, the intention is to spend at least €1.6 million per year on documentary. The media fund has another €800,000 for documentary. In all then, €2.4 million per year is earmarked for docs.
“We are not afraid of dealing with difficult subjects,” Van Bockstal says referring to some of the titles in this year’s CONNEXT, for example Thom Vander Beken’s The Last Jewish Summer, which explores Antwerp’s complicity in the persecution of its Jewish population during the Second World War.
Minority co-production remains on the documentary agenda, albeit with strict rules.
“You have to make choices. I am not going to lie about this. The main focus is on majority projects,” the VAF head says of budget priorities. “But yes, we are still open for minority projects on one condition – there needs to be Flemish talent linked to the documentary in a significant way. That could be in the scenario part, or the director, of the director of photography.”
CONNEXT is an expensive event to stage. This year, it involves distributors, sales agents and festival directors from all over the world being invited to Antwerp. The benefits, though, are obvious. Belgian films are over-achieving in terms of festival selection and international visibility. The Flemish region has less than 7 million people but Flemish fiction and documentary directors from Felix Van Groningen to Johan Grimonprez, from Fien Troch to Veerle Baestens, from Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah to Manu Riche have established big international reputations. Their work has often featured in CONNEXT.
“It has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve been creating an eco-culture where there is the VAF support, there is the support from Screen Flanders, there is the tax shelter,” Van Bockstal lists the measures (including the film schools) which give the region’s filmmakers the means with which to express themselves. CONNEXT then helps to get their work seen. It is the shop window.
“We know that since we are a small territory, for a lot of our producers, who are not necessarily big companies with lots of staff, international support and promotion and marketing support is really important. That is one of the reasons why CONNEXT is so important.”
For a few days in Antwerp, local producers have access to the best European distributors and the most prestigious festival programmers. “We know that if we are not going to go the extra mile, they probably are not going to come to us so we invite quite a lot of people to Antwerp.”
The event has a few screenings of completed films and series but the main emphasis is on works in progress and pitches. This means delegates can discover new talent at a very early stage.
Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and other big streamers are all participants, either in person or online. However, the VAF boss is adamant about one point.
“We have a very clear opinion about it. When we are dealing with movies, feature films, there needs to be a release in cinemas. If there is not a release in movie houses, forget about it, we are not even interested.”
Obviously, the VAF supports VR and TV series as well as features but it is a point of faith that films intended for the big screen should always be seen on the big screen. “With documentaries, it is a little more difficult but there is always one condition: we will never, never deal just directly with an international streaming platform. There always needs to be at least one independent production company [involved]. We give the support to the production company…that is one of the grand principles on which the VAF was established. We are there to support our independent producers.”
These are heady days for filmmakers in Flanders. They’ve been racking up multiple awards and their work is being seen all over the world. What gives them their edge? Is there something in the water?
“No, there is nothing in the water! It’s a combination of a lot of things,” the VAF boss says of the ongoing Flemish film boom. “One of the things that may be surprising is the fact that we are small I consider to be a huge advantage. It absolutely obliges us to direct our vision outside of our own borders. We know that there needs to be co-production. We know that we need to go for the strongest possible stories because nobody is waiting for Flanders. We know that we need to be very strong and focused in what we present to sales agents and festivals…”
Outsiders sometimes see Belgian culture as bitterly divided. The Flemish and the Wallonians are perceived as being rivals more than neighbours. That’s not Van Bockstal’s perspective. “We don’t see each other as competitors, we see each other as colleagues,” he states, pointing out that both communities share a stand at the Cannes festival. “That difficult relationship is more in the heads of politicians. In a very pragmatic way [in screen culture], we are working a lot together.”
