In the hot summer of 2016, De Imagerie (Koen Bleuzé, Thijs Paijmans, Anne Reijniers, Charlotte Koopman and Eva van Tongeren) organised Visite for the first time, in the cool city garden of art centre Het Bos in Antwerp. In the evening, at the start of the twilight period, films from both young, promising makers and more established names from the Belgian film landscape were shown.
Over the years, mainly local makers have been invited to show their work. In addition, they brought films by other directors, to enter into a dialogue with the audience about what inspired them. De Imagerie had the desire to watch films together with an audience and to provide screenings with a broader context. Visite grew into a temporary and reciprocal collage of experimental, political and documentary cinema with short and long films, lectures, performances and audiovisual exhibitions. Prior to the screenings, vegetarian meals were served by local cooking collectives. The dinner has always been important, it strengthens the togetherness at each screening and inspires the conversations before and after the film.
From 2018 onwards, Visite took on a more nomadic character, De Imagerie left its Antwerp home base on several occasions and showed films in collaboration with various partners in Brussels, Ghent, Ostend and Tongeren, amongst others.
The festival proved to be transformable and flexible. It was mainly organised biannually and sometimes annually. At times it lasted 13 days and occasionally only four. The program was curated collectively and now and then individually. Sometimes it fell in the summer, but also regularly in the winter.
Visite strives to be a social space for encounters and exchanges, where people get to know each other and keep coming back for each other and for the films. This fluid, dynamic and sometimes chaotic form has nestled itself in the DNA of the program. From 2022 onwards, we will stick less to our fixed formula and grow towards something lively, nomadic and collective: a mobile festival.
This new website is the point where curators, films, makers and programs come together and then fan out to different cinemas. They land there, where we can watch and talk about film together.
Visite is nothing without its partners & peers and is very grateful to them:
De Imagerie, Het Bos, VAF, City of Antwerp, Antwerp Art, Afreux, Beursschouwburg, Moment, Bozar, Kaskcinema, Monokino, Kaap, Out of Sight, De Cinema, Please add Color, Otark, Spoon, Table Dance, Iets, Sabzian, We Are Various, Fantômas, Filmmagie, kortfilm.be, Vertigo, Collectif Faire-Part, all the volunteers, all the filmmakers and the community of curious and loving spectators.