Une affaire d'État

A group of Congolese insurgents captures eight French soldiers. By way of ransom, the French government sends an airplane load of illegal weapons that is shot down and never arrives, leaving quite a few people in high places very nervous. A taut masterpiece of political crime cinema based loosely on Dominique Manotti’s Affairs of State.

Agents secrets

A team of operatives is on a mission to sink a cargo vessel carrying illegal weapons for a faction in the Angolan Civil War. But then, things start to go wrong. A dark look at the Janus-faced nature of international espionage and counter-terrorism, anchored loosely in the infamous 'Opération Satanique'.

Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember

Whirlwind mix of humour and grotesque violence by the productive Khavn, this time with young kids from the slums of Manila in the leading roles as robbing and murdering gang members with nicknames like Pork Chop, Bull Dog, McAbnormal and Snowman. And a smoking toddler, Day-Old Chick, walking round with a gun in his hand.

And Yet My Mask Is Powerful

A richly layered film in which 3D-printed Neolithic masks worn in destroyed Palestinian villages in Israel become a counterpoint to the dominant imagery of violence.

Atlanta

Earn (Donald Glover) is the inexperienced manager of his cousin, rapper Paper Boi. All they have in common is their struggle for a better life and earning more money. This hilarious, intelligent series, also aired by television channel FOX, offers an idiosyncratic, experimental narrative style but also a critical glimpse of the spirit of our times.

Azadaar

Loosely translated Azadaar means they who lament. This two-part video installation by Ayamus depicts a group of men pounding their bare backs or chests in a trance. The sensuous images are purposely unspectacular to provide a more nuanced insight than the ideological, polarising media discourse allows.

Baldwin's Nigger

In a filmed conversation with a largely black British audience, writer James Baldwin examines similarities between the British and American black experience and the role of white liberals in the struggle. With his fabled eloquence, Baldwin provides difficult issues such as race and skin colour with sharp and subtle commentary.

Bayard & Me

Intimate portrait of black homosexual civil rights activist and Freedom March organiser Bayard Rustin. His partner Walter Naegle describes how they rebelliously managed to make their relationship legal after all.

Braqueurs

A group of heist artists gets in trouble with a major narcs outfit. To avoid serious retribution, they have to intercept a go-fast drug run for them. And then things get out of hand. A very urban noir thriller about honour among thieves that plays hard and fast fast f-a-s-t!

Chlorophyl

Young woman wrestles with her identity and failed relationship, reflected in the city of Miami. A cinematographic exploration of change as a natural process, the way chlorophyll makes photosynthesis possible in leaves.

Le convoi

Seven people, four cars, one day to get from Malaga to Paris with a serious load of drugs. When a shoot-out with Spanish cops turns ugly and a French tourist is taken hostage, things get out of hand. A classy exercise in genre existentialism where only space and speed matter.

De guerre lasse

After killing a member of Marseillaise’s Corsican mafia, Alex, the son of pied-noir gangland kingpin Armande, ducks in a time-honoured way by joining the Foreign Legion. When he returns, several people are waiting for him, but for very different reasons. A Greek tragedy disguised as a grimly serene gangster melodrama. 

Double Play

An electrifying sketch of society in Curaçao focused on the apparently innocent domino game played by four men every Sunday. Until it unexpectedly takes a dramatic turn. There are dangerous secrets, women who make radical choices and a boy who sees everything. Based on the successful novel Double Play by Frank Martinus Arion.

Flower Seller

Hiding his true identity behind the role of an innocent flower seller, Abu El Ward is confronted by destiny in this thriller about a Palestinian collaborator. 

Fonko

An exciting exploration of the musical, social and cultural innovation presently spreading across the African continent. Fonko introduces us to a young generation that is rediscovering its own musical and activist heritage in countries like Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa and is producing a wide range of infectious new music styles.

Generatie B

With Belgium in economic turmoil, youths are the first to be hit, forced to live in squatter areas and literally beg for jobs. The homeless Jonas devises surreal strategies to survive. This satirical comedy imagines a dystopia that feels very close to home.  

The Glass Shield

The idealist JJ starts as a rookie and first black cop in the department. There he comes across a murky affair and discovers that when he tries to expose it, there are powers and forces that try to stop him. A clear-cut indictment of racism, sexism and violence within a police department based on existing incidents.

The Golden Chain

Yetunde is the only crew aboard the Nigerian space station Eko and witnesses the recreation of the origins of the universe. A futuristic reinterpretation of the Yoruba story of creation.

Graft and Ash for a Three Monitor Workstation

Self-portrait of Sondra Perry's avatar investigating its own identity. A problematic software process that leads to a fatal error mode: the blue screen of death.

Le grand jeu

When has-been literati Pierre meets gambler Joseph, this mysterious man makes him an offer he should have refused. Yet it’s only too understandable he didn’t – it’s not every day one is asked to write a manual for insurrection. An icily elegant allegory about seduction, vanity and the past’s long shadow.

HAMSTERs

After the terrorist attack at the Jewish Museum in 2014, people in Brussels are plagued with a very peculiar disease — they can’t help dancing in the streets. Modern trauma is dealt in a raw, poetic way in this film, part-documentary on a neighbourhood, part-urban-magical-spell.


  

Hustlers Convention

Ten years before Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash launched the new musical trend, the trailblazing Hustlers Convention appeared by Jalal Nuriddin, regarded by many as the 'Grandfather of Rap'. Interviews are juxtaposed with music excerpts in this investigation of the origins of hip-hop and the crucial role of this almost forgotten album.

Identification

A story of the city in sixteen acts, recurring scenes with variations, of loss and humour. A look at the colour that is not a colour. Remembering Charlie "Africa" Keunang. (Mike Hoolboom)

Improvement Association

Fascinating portrait of Malik Hudgins, who has been a member since 1974 of the Universal Negro Improvement Association founded by Marcus Garvey.

In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain

A narrative resistance group tries to change the history and fate of its people in the future by manipulating its past through underground porcelain deposits. 

Introduction to the End of an Argument

Snippets from Western films, documentaries and news coverage are woven together to expose their racial bias when depicting the Middle East, Arab culture and Palestinians.

Japanese Girls Never Die

A young woman disappears in Tokyo and a group of female street artists paint her face on walls all over the city. A gang of teenage girls attack men in the streets. All this fuels a dazzling mix of delicate moments and chaotic outbursts championing lively Japanese girls irked by machismo.

KBELA

A powerful visual essay about nappy hair. Confrontational and poetic, tranquil and exciting, it investigates the oppression of black Brazilian women, but also shows their power and diversity.