Because We Are Visual, Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes (2010)

DigiBeta, 47 min., Engels en Frans gesproken met Engelse ondertitels

In Because We Are Visual duiken Olivia Rochette en Gerard-Jan Claes in de wereld van video dagboeken. Online gemeenschappen op het internet horen mensen samen te brengen en te verbinden. Toch lijkt de virtuele wereld deze zogenaamde vloggers meer dan ooit te confronteren met hun eenzaamheid. Deze documentaire focust op de ervaring van het lichaam in de virtuele ruimte. Met beeldmateriaal verzameld van diverse online bronnen creëren de cineasten een unieke, poëtische wereld waarin de gedachten, angsten, verlangens en zorgen die gedeeld worden via de webcam, samenkomen.

Regie, montage en geluid: Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes

Geluidsmixage: Michel Schöpping

Muziek: Mount Kimbie, Ethan Rose, Billy Bultheel

Extra sound design: Billy Bultheel, Wiet Lengeler

Color grading: Olivier Ogneux

Titels: Mario Debaene

Montageadvies: Elias Grootaers, Nico Leunen

Geluidadvies: Michel Schöpping, Martine Huvenne, Elias Grootaers

Mentoren: Elias Grootaers, Martine Huvenne, An Van Dienderen

Met de steun van: Crinto bvba, Scam, Marx Van Ranst Vermeersch & Partners

DigiBeta, 47 min., English and French spoken with English subtitles

In Because We Are Visual Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes immerse themselves into the world of public video journals. The Internet and its online communities intend to bring people closer together and to connect them. Yet, surprisingly, it seems that the virtual world confronts these so-called vloggers more than ever with their own loneliness. This documentary allows the viewer to discover this contemporary phenomenon and focuses on the experience of the body within this virtual space. By means of visual material gathered from online sources, the cineastes create a unique poetic realm in which thoughts, fears, desires, and worries, shared via the webcam, merge together.

Olivia Rochette (Belgium, 1987) and Gerard-Jan Claes (Belgium, 1987) live and work in Brussels. They studied film at KASK graduating in 2010 with Because We Are Visual (2010), a mid-length documentary that was shown at festivals such as IFFRotterdam, IDFAmsterdam, Videoex (Zürich), and was exhibited in museums such as S.M.A.K. (Ghent) and MAC’s (Grand-Hornu).

In 2012 they released Rain, a documentary about the transmission of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s contemporary choreography Rain to the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris. Rain premiered nationally at the International Film Festival Ghent and was released in Belgian cinemas onwards. Selected at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam for its international premiere, it continued to be shown at festivals such as Cinéma du Réel at Centre Pompidou (Paris), Internationalen Dokumentarfilmfestivals München and Los Angeles Film Festival.

In 2013 they co-founded Sabzian. The website is a collection of online reflections on cinema and an agenda listing cinephile events in Belgium and surroundings.

In 2016 they closed their residency at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels off with a screening of Grands travaux as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. The film Grands travaux is set in the Institute Anneessens-Funck, a Dutch-speaking vocational school in the center of Brussels where young students have come to learn a trade. Grands travaux had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Their newest film, Mitten (2019), follows the final weeks of rehearsal of Mitten wir im Leben sind, a performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Currently, they are working on a new film, Kind Hearts, produced by Accattone films.

https://claes-rochette.be/