Zomerfilmcollege 2022

From 10 to 16 July, CINEA's annual Zomerfilmcollege (Summer Film School) at De Cinema in Antwerp once again offers more than fifteen talks by internationally renowned experts and twenty screenings of recent digital restorations and rare archival 35mm prints from the extensive collection of the Royal Belgian Film Archive (CINEMATEK) that are rarely or never shown on the big screen.

As usual, this year's edition presents two main programs. The first one plunges into the German Romantic cinema of the 70s with films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Werner Schroeter and Daniel Schmid. Critics Adrian Martin & Cristina Álvarez López will explore what connects all these filmmakers: the legacy of Romanticism, a mythologizing of the past, and a search for the Absolute, however impossible that may seem in a thoroughly fragmented, commodified reality.

The second strand offers a nuanced and in-depth look at the work of one of the greatest American directors in film history, John Ford, with a focus on his work from the 1930s. The Zomerfilmcollege wants to uncover the complexities of a filmmaker whose films represented a profound critique of American society and who, even half a century after his death, continues to make an impact in Hollywood and far beyond. This series will be presented by a new lecturer this year: professor Lea Jacobs, one of the most respected experts researching the life and work of Ford and also a colleague of David Bordwell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On Sabzian, you can read a Prisma (in Dutch) on John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941) by Gerard-Jan Claes and Ignace Wouters, respectively.

Both modules will take place alternately in the morning and the afternoon. The evening sessions can be attended by all participants. For the first time, the whole program will be in English this year and fully accesible to international participants. On the website of CINEA, you can find all information and ticket options in Dutch and English (below).

“Vooraleer Schroeter verhalen begon te vertellen, waren beelden er om door geluid ondermijnd te worden; hun kunstmatigheid, hun slechts geciteerde bestaan benadrukte het gehoor als het meest archaïsche zintuig dat het dichtst bij het onbewuste ligt. En: ogen kunnen gesloten worden, maar oren niet.”

Frieda Grafe1

• 1Frieda Grafe, “Filmtips,” Sabzian, January 29, 2020, Translated to Dutch by Sis Matthé. Originally published in 1976 in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and collected in Ausgewählte Schriften in 12 Bänden, vol. 11, p. 267.