In her work as a producer at Ghent-based company Cassette for timescapes, Emmy Oost has been involved in many projects dealing with female stories, gender imbalance and the lack of diversity within media and culture. For example, she put together the pioneering 2023 series She They Us.
Some may see it as a surprise, then, that she is now working with Belgian-Turkish filmmaker Volkan Üce on his new feature documentary, About Horses, Wives and Weapons – a movie very much about men and masculinity.
“In Turkey, the saying “Horses, wives, weapons” is the ultimate checklist for manhood: you’ve got to have a car, a wife, and have done time in the army to prove you’re the real deal,” reads the film’s synopsis.
Why take on such a testosterone-driven project when she and her team actually want to empower women and the female gaze? Oost remembers that when she was working on She They Us, one of the participants commented: “I am really worried about men, so what about men?”.
This turned out to be a provocative and pertinent question. With the same team of filmmakers, Cassette for timescapes is now developing a new series, What About Men, exploring the crisis in masculinity.
“As long as we do not tackle the stereotypical harness of what a man can be today, it will be very difficult to reach gender equality and more rights for women. Especially now that we seem to turn back the clock and stereotypical gender roles are on the rise again,” she reflects.
Research for the series conducted with experts in gender studies has revealed the challenges for young men in in defining their role in society “Now, the stereotypical role of man being the provider, the protector of the family, is being blurred. In a complex world, we see that young men need direction…In the new series we are exploring who is actually listening to the problems of men.”
In the meantime, though, Oost will be presenting Üce’s feature work-in-progress in Ghent. “It’s no coincidence, with what is cooking in society, that Volkan is working on a similar topic, but from a completely different point of view. Through the lens of the military service, he will be looking at the patriarchy, but the conclusion is the same – that men and women are equally victims of patriarchal structures.”
Although the film is a serious look at its subject, it also has a strain of absurdist humour. What are the odds that one of the characters, whose military service could mean the end of his dance career, is actually performing in full military uniform for a special show celebrating 100 years of the Turkish Republic? “It shows that reality is always bigger than fiction,” says Oost.
The documentary makers are taking special care to be protective of their protagonists. “It’s a very sensitive topic in Turkey especially,” Oost notes.
85% of the project’s budget has now been pulled together. Intriguingly, this Turkish-themed film has been put together as a Belgian-Finnish co-production. The Finnish co-producer is Jenni Jauri at Helsinki-based Silmu Films, who came on board after the Thessaloniki pitching Forum. Oost’s fellow producer Magalie Dierick had met Jauri through Eurodoc. Both Silmu and Finnish broadcaster YLE saw themes in the documentary which they felt related strongly to Finnish society too.
Contemplating the current landscape for docs in Flanders, Oost expresses her frustration that the genre has been regarded for a long time as “the little sister of fiction.” Documentary makers have to comply with rules and guidelines that are actually designed for fiction.
Nonetheless, she praises new VAF head Karla Puttemans for her championing of non-fiction. “I am happy to see that documentary is finally being valued on the same level of fiction.”
She also acknowledges that there is a strong sense of optimism in the air. Flemish docs received a major boost last year with the Oscar nomination for Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.
Oost has worked with Grimonprez for many years. They run a company together, Onomatopee Films. She produced his earlier movies and has seen at first-hand how he has grown as a filmmaker, becoming ever more accomplished and ambitious.
“The thing with Johan is that when you produce a film with him, you can do only that. It would be impossible to run a production company and work on different films – and I prefer to work on different films with different teams and different topics,” Oost explains. She sees her role now to be available for the producer of Johan’s new project in case she is needed.
Through her collaboration with Grimonprez, Oost has expertise in the art field as well the documentary world. She also knows just how to pitch and raise funding for offbeat and intellectually challenging work.
Cassette for timescapes has several other films that have been making waves. This Is My Moment by Lieven Corthouts, about young Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay, has been received with equal enthusiasm by festivals and by cycling enthusiasts. It was made as a feature but a special shorter version was edited for sports events, one of them being the Film Bike Tour 2025. This has been seen all across Europe by Tour de France fans. Corthouts filmed Girmay at the beginning of his career, as he came to Europe. He has gone on to become a young superstar of his sport – and one of the few Black athletes to have won stages on the Tour de France.
Furthermore, Oost talks up the work being done by her sister An Oost in overseeing Timescape’s VR projects. One of their works, A Long Goodbye by Kate Voet and Victor Maes, won the Achievement award at the Immersive Competition of the Venice Film Festival just last month.
“I am also running another organisation, Filmpact, where we try to create more opportunities for audiences to see documentaries in Flanders,” the tireless producer says of another of her initiatives. In all her many activities, she tries to bring people together and to open up opportunities for filmmakers and spectators alike. “I guess I like the cooperative approach,” she concludes.
