Cinema: this spring’s program

For spring, the Bpi’s Cinémathèque du documentaire continues its rich program of free daytime screenings at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, and evening screenings on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Forum des images.

This season, our program resumes in all its diversity, with its regular events and two new themed cycles.

The first, in chronological order, opens a window on a European country about which we still have much to discover. Si la Bulgarie m’était contée offers a selection of eight films made over the last twenty years by Bulgarian filmmakers, about a country that never ceases to move and surprise them.

We discover Bulgarians between hope and despair, carers in the midst of a crisis, a psychiatrist-entrepreneur, a passionate hairdresser, a modern priest, a future TV star, a hooligan-single father… Their stories take us to villages and cities, to meet the Rom community or the inhabitants of one of the former mining basins. The filmmakers will accompany the films thanks to the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris, which will welcome Elitza Gueorguieva for an exceptional meeting on April 15.

The second cycle features ambitious programming on rebels, eccentrics and visionaries of all stripes. Outsiders presents people who are fiercely on the bangs of convention and social norms. From their often chosen and asserted position, their trajectories allow us to reflect on the violence and hypocrisy of human society.

Whether they are young Romanian sex workers, Indian cabaret dancers or erotic performers, they all question the value we place on heterosexual and homosexual desires, pleasure and money. Rebellion and transgression are at the heart of the dreams of young people all over the world, who are seeking their place by shaking up the forbidden, even in countries where public expression is tightly controlled. Elsewhere, minorities are trying to assert their rights on earth, while other groups prefer to withdraw into their radical utopia, far from view. For Outsiders is also a celebration of absolute freedom, struggling, sometimes to the point of mental disorder, against the tyranny of appearances. Like The Residents, the emblematic figures who have been performing on stage for 50 years, wearing their iconic eyeballs instead of heads. The film dedicated to them by Marie Losier, Barking in the Dark, premieres and opens the cycle on April 23.

Also at the Forum des images, we invite you to discover the rich history of the Festival des 3 continents, in the company of its teams, for Fenêtre sur festivals. Trésors du doc, 50 years after the Veil law, looks back at the epic of the Movement for the Freedom of Abortion and Contraception in Gennevilliers. Two magazines present the cinema they defend: Panorama-cinéma and Images documentaires in the context of their meetings. Finally, the Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde returns with a double screening devoted to Jean Rouch. And don’t miss the two premiere screenings offered by France Télévisions and ARTE, on May 21 and June 25 respectively.

We have just learned of the sad death of Richard Dindo, whom the Bpi and the Cinémathèque du documentaire supported and helped to make known. To pay tribute to him, we’ll be screening Ernesto Che Guevara, le journal de Bolivie on May 14, with a host of guests.

At the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, we invite you to attend three cycles of lectures and screenings for all: Stéphane Breton‘s seminar Penser en images with EHESS, Sophie Jehel and Ninon Lacroix‘s seminar L’intime : méthode d’enquête with Université Paris 8, and the Marges de villes film lectures of Université permanente de Paris with Claire Allouche (Cahiers du cinéma). In addition, on April 18, Claire Simon will give an exceptional masterclass with the Institute of World Film at Shanghai Normal University, accompanied by a screening of Récréations. Last but not least, every Friday, Les yeux doc à midi will be offering a new cycle of films, beautifully entitled Vertiges du monde. Two sessions hosted by Claire Allouche will feature the results of her workshop with Paris 8 students.

We look forward to welcoming you in ever-greater numbers to share in the cinematic moments we’ve imagined for you.

To explore the full program, check out our agenda, or the Spring 2025 brochure!