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 25 euros, lunch is included. (Language of the day will be Dutch).
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.
About BXL:
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.
A little more about the panelists:
Ish and Monir Ait Hamou
Addressing big themes through intimate stories is something the Hamou brothers have done before. Ish Ait Hamou, who became known as a choreographer and judge on TV shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, has emerged as a leading author in recent years. His debut Hard Heart sold more than 30,000 copies, a high he surpassed with his novel The beauty we share with 100,000 copies sold, about a young woman who, after a drastic event, searches for a second chance in life. His brother Monir Ait Hamou has been active in the film industry for some time and was able to build on the experience he gained as an actor on the set of Les barons (2009) and the TV series Lockdown (2021), and as screenwriter and director of TV series Champion (2018). For BXL, they wrote and directed together.
Kris Rutten
Kris Rutten is a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies at Ghent University where he heads the Culture & Education research group. Rutten studied art sciences and comparative cultural studies and later obtained a doctorate in pedagogical sciences with a dissertation on the rhetorical and narrative turn in education.
Claudia van Egmond - Tajo
TAJO vzw introduces young people between 10 and 18 from vulnerable backgrounds to a wide variety of professions and the talents that go with them. Through practical and experiential workshops on Saturdays, TAJO wants to let young people discover themselves and society, give them more perspective on a hopeful future and keep them from dropping out of school. TAJO inspires, motivates and prepares young people to step autonomously into society. All under the motto: “Only those who are given opportunities can seize them.”
Gerrit Vosters
With nearly 30 years of experience in education and as an independent teacher of film education, Vosters founded the FilmStof project in 2009. This project aims to increase the knowledge of film and visual culture among young people and the wider public. Gerrit attends seminars with renowned experts such as Robert McKee and David Bordwell, and focuses mainly on secondary education. Together with the Vlaamse Dienst voor FilmCultuur he is developing 'Oog op film', an in-service training series for teachers that serves as a basis for curricula in Flemish secondary schools, and the film forum project '2x raak', in which film classics are linked to more recent works.
Program
Morning:
09:00 - 11:00| Filmscreening BXL.
11:00 - 12:00 | Debrief with Gerrit Vosters (Filmstof). He will film-technically analyze the film with us based on the building blocks of film.
Afternoon:
12:00 -13:00 | Lunch break. Lunch will be provided for participants.
13:00 - 14:00 | Paneltalk with Ish and Monir Ait Hamou.
14:00 - 14:15 | Break.
14:15 - 15:15 |Round-the-table-talks about a few different themes. (2x 30')