Regisseur Karin Junger kreeg kritiek toen in 2017 haar documentaire Ik alleen in de klas uitkwam over uitsluiting en racisme. Als witte vrouw zou zij deze film niet moeten maken zeiden critici. Zij is niet de enige maker die de afgelopen jaren werd beticht van culturele toe-eigening en het innemen van ruimte. In Free Space onderzoekt Junger wie wat mag maken in de kunst. In De Balie vertoont zij haar documentaire, waarna ze in gesprek gaat met theatermaker Maarten van Hinte over culturele toe-eigening in de kunstwereld.

In Free Space vraagt Karin Junger aan kunstenaars in hoeverre je sekse, kleur of seksuele voorkeur bepalend is voor wat je wel of niet zou moeten maken. Zij sprak daarover verschillende makers waaronder schrijver Ted van Lieshout, theatermaker Raymi Sambo, winti-priesteres Marian Markelo en auteurs Stephan Sanders en Thomas Chatterton Williams.

Karin Junger is een schrijver-regisseur. Ze groeide op in België en woont momenteel in Nederland. Ze volgde de opleiding tot regie drama aan het MAURITS BINGER Filminstituut in Amsterdam. Als documentairemaker regisseerde ze onder andere ‘Ik alleen in de klas’ en ‘Sexy Money’ (nominatie Gouden Kalf 2014).

Maarten van Hinte is een Nederlands-Surinaamse acteur, regisseur, (toneel)schrijver en dramaturg. Hij schreef onder meer aan de voorstellingen Woiski vs. Woiski en de Gliphoeve van Orkater en maakte voor het Nationaal Theater een toneelbewerking van Tori (Brian Elstak). Samen met Marjorie Boston is hij de creatieve kracht achter RIGHTABOUTNOW INC. Zij pionierden met Made in da Shade,het hiphop theater in Nederland, en waren oprichters en curatoren van het legendarische MC theater.

This programme is part of Artists Against the Kremlin, a showcase of anti-war, anti-authoritarianism art presented by The Moscow Times, All Rights Reversed gallery and De Balie in Amsterdam from August 3 to September 3.

The documentary The Age of Disagreement: 2024, filmed on the eve of the latest presidential ‘election’, follows young supporters of Navalny who have been involved in his campaign for years. Filming was nearly complete when the news of Navalny’s death broke. How do activists maintain hope in their fight for a better Russia? After the screening, we will speak with director and journalist Andrey Loshak.

The Age of Disagreement: 2024 is a sequel to The Age of Disagreement, which was filmed on the eve of the 2018 presidential election in Russia and focused on opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and the young supporters who helped him with his unofficial campaign. Although Navalny was denied registration as a candidate, he campaigned as if he were on the ballot.

Fast forward six years to 2024, another Russian presidential election, held in March and once again won by Vladimir Putin with a state-reported 87.3 percent of the vote. Loshak’s new film explores how the lives of the same activists, who once dreamed with Navalny of a ‘beautiful Russia of the future’ have changed dramatically.

About Andrey Loshak

Andrey Loshak is a Russian journalist and film director, known for his uncompromising reporting on tv and his critical documentaries such as Deti Koridorov (2006), Broken Ties (2022) and Russian Hackers (2022).

Angus is een goedgelovige tiener die er alles aan doet om er bij te horen. Hij wordt enorm aangetrokken door de underground postpunkmuziekscene. Vastberaden om deel uit te maken van deze aantrekkelijke maar wispelturige subcultuur, distantieert Angus zich van zijn echte vrienden en liegt hij over zijn muzikale capaciteiten tegen zijn nieuwe ‘vrienden’. Ingehaald door zijn eigen bedrog zal hij snel de muzikant moeten worden die hij zegt te zijn en zal hij moeten optreden met een band die (nog) niet bestaat. Met de steun van zijn vrienden, vooral de getalenteerde Kirsten, moet Angus angst, spot en een gebrekkig zelfvertrouwen overwinnen en het podium betreden.

Op een afgezonderde idyllische boerderij in de bossen van Noorwegen leven de Paynes wild, vrij en zelfvoorzienend. Maria en Nik geven hun kinderen Ulv, Falk, Freja en Ronja thuisonderwijs en streven ernaar om met een hecht gezin in harmonie met de natuur te leven. Een tragische gebeurtenis maakt echter een abrupt einde aan hun idyllische wereld en forceert het gezin op een nieuw pad richting de moderne maatschappij.

A New Kind of Wilderness, die op het prestigieuze Sundance Film Festival werd uitgeroepen tot beste documentaire, is een intiem en warm portret over liefde, het leven en opgroeien. Het verhaal van de Paynes, hun overwinningen en worstelingen, nodigen uit te reflecteren op onze eigen levenskeuzen, onze verantwoordelijkheid tegenover de Aarde en onze kinderen en hoe we omgaan met het leven na een groot verlies.

A New Kind of Wilderness heeft in het weekend van 12 oktober de Best European Video Documentary of the Year 2024 van Prix Europa gewonnen, een prestigieuze tv prijs.

“In Restless Dreams” is an exploration of a life of singular creativity that has lost none of its curiosity, ambition and mystery. As a closing event of our summer series of music documentaries, created in collaboration with Piece of Magic, De Balie brings you an exclusive chance to take a deep look into the miracle of Paul Simon’s songwriting, long before the film comes to regular distribution.

On January 15, 2019, Paul Simon had a dream in which a voice told him, “you’re working on a piece called ‘Seven Psalms.’” In the months that followed, lines and phrases would come to him at odd moments, sometimes even while he was asleep. He began to hear the melody that would stitch the bits and pieces together. As the verses took shape – like a series of photographs emerging from the chemical baths of a darkroom – Simon reached out to Alex Gibney to see if he would be interested in filming his process of taking the basic elements and turning them into the album that would become Seven Psalms.

Gibney traveled to Simon’s new studio in Wimberly, Texas, where Simon sketched out, on guitar and raw vocals, a series of songs that examined faith, death and the mystery of creation. “This whole piece is really an argument I’m having with myself about belief, or not,” says Simon in the film.

The film juxtaposes the process of making the new album against archival material tracing Simon’s career and creative journey, including revelatory, previously unseen footage from such historic moments as the recording of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Graceland” and Simon & Garfunkel’s unforgettable reunion concert in Central Park.

Founded in London in 1988, Blur is a renowned British rock band, known for bringing worldwide recognition to the Britpop music genre. After an eight-year-long hiatus they returned to the scene with a surprise release of their ninth album, The Ballad of Darren, in 2023. Many concerts followed, crowned by the performance at the Coachella festival in April 2024.

Blur: To the End captures the unique bond between longtime friends and bandmates Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree as they reunited to record new songs ahead of their sold-out debut performances at London’s Wembley Stadium in July 2023. Featuring performances of their most iconic, beloved songs, along with footage from the studio and life on the road, Blur: To The End offers an intimate glimpse into one of England’s most enduring bands.

In collaboration with Piece of Magic, De Balie brings its visitors the exclusive chance to see this film months before its official Dutch release, and only one day after the world premiere in the UK.

Shot on location in London & Brighton, Andrew Dominik’s feature documentary This Much I Know to Be True captures Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ exceptional creative relationship as they bring to life the songs from their last two studio albums, Ghosteen (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) and Carnage (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis).

In this document of their first ever performances of these albums, filmed in spring 2021 ahead of their UK tour, we see the two, accompanied by singers and string quartet, as they nurture each song into existence. The film features a special appearance by close friend and long-term collaborator, Marianne Faithfull.

Shot in colour by Andrew Dominik and with cinematography by Robbie Ryan, This Much I Know to Be True is a companion piece to Dominik’s 2016 film One More Time with Feeling. It reaches into the deep friendship and personal relationship between Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, something glimpsed in the 2014 Cave pseudo-documentary, 20,000 Days on Earth. The film will prove to be another significant moment in the journeys of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, capturing the mood and spirit of the pair as they move through a new, optimistic phase.

Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution is a quirky blend of science fiction, pulp fiction characters, and surrealist poetry, making it one of the most unconventional films ever made.

In Alphaville Godard makes another bold attempt at mixing genres, this time merging dystopian science fiction with film noir. Instead of using elaborate props or futuristic sets, the film was shot on location in Paris, with the city’s nighttime streets representing those of Alphaville and modernist glass and concrete buildings (which were novel and striking in 1965) serving as the city’s interiors.

American actor Eddie Constantine stars as a trenchcoat-wearing secret agent, Lemmy Caution. The character of Lemmy Caution was originally created by British crime novelist Peter Cheyney, and Constantine portrayed him on screen multiple times. However, in Alphaville, director Jean-Luc Godard transports Caution from his typical twentieth-century noir setting to a futuristic sci-fi dystopia – the technocratic dictatorship of Alphaville.

The film won the Golden Bear award at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965.

In “Jane by Charlotte,” French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, Melancholia) makes her directorial debut with a loving portrait of her mother, the iconic singer and actress Jane Birkin. The documentary provides insights into the mother-daughter relationship between the two famous film stars through intimate conversations about aging, dying, insomnia, fame, and their different memories of their shared past, including Charlotte’s father and Jane’s husband, Serge Gainsbourg.

Through the camera lens, they expose themselves to one another, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship to unfold.

Maria Callas, the quintessential diva and the face of the opera in the 20th century, made her Paris debut with this legendary performance at the sumptuous Paris Opéra on December 19th, 1958, for one night only.

It was a major social event, attended by ‘le tout Paris’ (including French President Coty, Jean Cocteau, the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, Charlie Chaplin, Brigitte Bardot, and many more). Callas appeared on the famous stage wearing her most elegant couture and a million dollars’ worth of jewelry. The repertoire in this performance shows Callas at her best, both in recital and as an operatic actress.

Available for the first time entirely in colour and meticulously restored from the recently discovered original 16mm reels and a newly discovered sound source – this is an opportunity to experience this historical performance as never before. Produced by the team behind the award-winning film “Maria by Callas”.