Edition 2024
On Wednesday 16 October Film Fest Gent organizes Teacher's Day. On this annual festival day, we give teachers the tools to work with film in the classroom and make students media and film-wizards. This year the day is dedicated to BXL, the debut film by Ish Ait Hamou and Mounir Ait Hamou, which will premiere at the festival on 11 October.
The participation fee is 20 euros, lunch is included. (Language of the day will be Dutch).
Film screening BXL
Together we dive into both the content and the form of the film. Film analysis teacher Gerrit Vosters (film material) and the filmmakers analyze with us the building blocks of the film. What choices were made for camerawork, lighting, editing, narrative structures, ...? Later in the day, we discuss the themes at the heart of the film. We consider some of the social challenges that are also complex issues in many schools and classrooms.
Besides brotherly love and big dreams, brothers Ish and Monir Ait Houmou in BXL show the fierce battle between personal ambitions and societal expectations in the heart of Brussels. What if your dreams are bigger than the expectations others have? The debut feature by writer/dancer/filmmaker Ish Ait Hamou and his brother Mounir shows two brothers from Brussels struggling with this. While the older brother has the opportunity to pursue his martial arts career in the U.S. and leave behind his life as a factory worker in Brussels for a while, he struggles with the expectations and pressures of those around him. "One of the questions we - children of immigrants - wanted to explore is whether a dream is a gift or a curse," Ish told Screen Daily. "Some cannot deal with destroyed dreams, especially when it comes from systematic pressure, racism and discrimination." So BXL is by no means just a personal story of two brothers from Brussels, but also a reflection on how society affects our dream life.
Together we dive into both the content and the form of the film. Film analysis teacher Gerrit Vosters (film material) and the filmmakers analyze with us the building blocks of the film. What choices were made for camerawork, lighting, editing, narrative structures, ...? Later in the day, we discuss the themes at the heart of the film. We consider some of the social challenges that are also complex issues in many schools and classrooms.
Besides brotherly love and big dreams, brothers Ish and Monir Ait Houmou in BXL show the fierce battle between personal ambitions and societal expectations in the heart of Brussels. What if your dreams are bigger than the expectations others have? The debut feature by writer/dancer/filmmaker Ish Ait Hamou and his brother Mounir shows two brothers from Brussels struggling with this. While the older brother has the opportunity to pursue his martial arts career in the U.S. and leave behind his life as a factory worker in Brussels for a while, he struggles with the expectations and pressures of those around him. "One of the questions we - children of immigrants - wanted to explore is whether a dream is a gift or a curse," Ish told Screen Daily. "Some cannot deal with destroyed dreams, especially when it comes from systematic pressure, racism and discrimination." So BXL is by no means just a personal story of two brothers from Brussels, but also a reflection on how society affects our dream life.