Concept & direction: Sarah Vanagt
Camera: Katrien Vermeire
Editing: Effi Weiss
Sound editing: Maxime Cotton
Premiered at: Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2010
Reviews: The British Theatre Guide
Video director Sarah Vanagt, who presented Power Cut at KFDA 07, has chosen her own street, the Boulevard d'Ypres/Ieperlaan, as both the setting and theme of her latest project. Urban development and gentrification are driving out the Mediterranean stores which gave the street its unique charm. So in order to memorialize her street, Vanagt went out to meet shop owners, forklift drivers and anyone else she came across, assembling their stories to create a fairy tale. Her approach is borrowed from Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, one of the initiators of microhistory. This branch of history attempts to uncover power relations in society by focusing on details, and it is a technique which Vanagt had already used in Les Mouchoirs de Kabila, in which she let children speak out. In her latest project, the street's inhabitants fictionalize their own life stories. By framing a moment in the history of mentalities, Boulevard d'Ypres/Ieperlaan gives us an audiovisual chronicle of a changing street: this experimental documentary gives voice to the colourful mix of inhabitants whose stories come together in the heart of Europe.
Producer
Sarah Vanagt
Coproducer
Cyril Bibas (Centre Vidéo de Bruxelles)
Presentation
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Foyer Georges Motte, Kaaitheater
Production
Balthasar (Brussels)
Coproduction
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Centre Vidéo de Bruxelles (CVB), Argos Centre for Art and Media (Brussels)
Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie