Atelier Graphoui

Melrick is an unruly young boy who spends his summer in French Guiana at his grandmother's house to escape his turbulent daily life in Stains, France. At the end of his stay, he plays the drum to revive the memory of his late uncle, Lucas Diomar, who died in tragic circumstances. Despite a wave of murders of young men shaking the headlines, Melrick becomes aware of his place in a family destroyed by irreparable grief.

At the beginning of winter, a filmmaker retires for six months to a hermit's cabin in the middle of the forest, cut off from the world and its means of communication. Through the words of four women she has filmed previously, all of whom have dedicated their lives to different forms of spirituality, she embarks on a mysterious inner adventure, on the edge of solitude and nature. A journey that invites us to connect with the world in a different way.

A short film using parts of the storyboard drawings for Fritz Lang's Man Hunt given to the French Cinémathèque to recreate a scene to showcase a part of the directors' creative process.

Castiglione d'Otranto, in the South of Italy. A group of thirty-year-olds no longer accept that the solution to the economic, ecological and political problems of the territory is always "to leave". They propose to the villagers who own pieces of uncultivated land, often felt as a burden, to put them in common. They decide to stay, to link their lives to the land and to invest in a value: being together. Castiglione becomes the village of restance. They cultivate ancient seeds and local biodiversity, they make decisions together, they develop a local economy. Accepting the shadows of the past, another potential of the place is rediscovered.

In Fabrizio Terranova’s film, Donna Haraway – an original thinker and activist, one of the founders of cyberfeminism and the author of A Cyborg Manifesto, which proposed a number of innovative theories about the existence of scientific knowledge – calls for the abandonment of the idea of human exceptionalism and for a conception of the world as complex web of interconnections between people, animals and machines. Jellyfish can be seen flying around her home while she discusses the stories that are necessary for Earth’s preservation and reads her fantastic tale of the art of survival on a broken planet, and of fusion and care between the species.

Lies and guilt are at the core of Patrick’s relationship with his mother Randa. Over the years, he has collected their audio messages and video calls, transforming them into a portrait of her life in Lebanon and his own in Belgium. This very intimate yet social piece reveals a complex relationship marked by the distance between the two characters and shows what one may experience as a homosexual migrant. By turns moving, provocative, and hilarious, Mea Culpa questions the links between national and sexual identities for a young Palestinian migrant.

A young man walks through the winter in search of a love encounter with another man, and in search of the presence of Christ. Signal GPS perdu tells the story of his inner journey by combining the snowy landscapes of the Jura, a medieval courtly text, and a gay dating application on a smartphone.

Marion is an artist with FSH, an incurable muscular myopathy. She guides us on the path she has taken to no longer identify with her illness.

Between segregation and cosmic revelation, The Magic City traces the birth of Sun Ra, where a city becomes myth and a man, a galaxy.

Six Brussels children between ten to twelve years old make an animated film together in which they let their imaginations run wild. With great care, they sculpt characters, build sets, and bring everything to life with stop-motion. The end result is a universe full of angels and monsters, a creative translation of the way they experience the world around them. Filmmaker Patrick Van Antwerp gives a fascinating insight into the children’s creative process and the workings of the studio.

Amid the buildings and streets of Ramallah, men take up positions. In a continuous, unedited shot, the camera witnesses a confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers illegally stationed in the city. With a single gesture, the viewer experiences the occupation of Palestinian territory in real time.

Self-taught Congolese artists Tétshim and Frank Mukunday have been animating since 2010. Their stop-motion films use chalk drawings, stones and repurposed materials. Machini talks about the influence that mining has on the city. About the pollution and the slow destruction of man by man.

Inspired by their teacher during their first history lesson, a group of eight- and nine-year-old children decides to create an animated film about prehistory. Through four colorful scenes depicting the life of prehistoric humans, they creatively incorporate their own ideas and experiences. This project, born from a workshop at Atelier Graphoui, shows how history comes to life through the eyes of children.

Tells the story of four young people who were affected by the Vargas tragedy in 1999. They were six years old when the natural disaster occurred that left painful traces. In their adolescence, they participated in talks and short films to speak and give recommendations to more than 4,000 students about prevention and mitigation in the face of a natural and social disaster.

The first thing you hear is the murmur of the waves. Gradually some children arrive. They frolic on the beach, dig in the sand, get one another wet and have fun together. At some point, Nina finds herself all alone on the shore. She climbs over the cliffs and waves wash away traces in the sand.

In Brussels, the Iranian artist and film director Vida Dena meets Naseem, father of a Syrian family who fled from the war. Within the walls of their precarious home, she talks with Hala and Rima, his two eldest daughters, through drawings. The little bits of coloured paper come to life on the screen to relate the memories, dreams and destiny of this family in exile.

Portraying a place, a workshop, and projecting our imaginations onto it. Taking this commonplace setting as a backdrop for an animated film. A film where dreams are shared experiences. Dreams are reality.

As part of a school project, a group of children from Brussels create an animated film inspired by the theme of "play." Five stories come to life in sets made from black-and-white photos of their own living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms. From Monopoly to video games, each story offers a unique perspective on creativity and the power of imagination.