BEFORE WE GO

Film: Before We Go by Jorge León

An awarded film about human frailty, death, resilience and the lifeaffirming possibilities of communal artistic activity.

Brussels, La Monnaie Opera House. Three people near the end of their lives meet with choreographers, actors and musicians. They take part in a unique experience which involves music, dance and silence. Their journey becomes a tribute to the fragility of the human condition, between reality and representation, tragedy of the body and freedom of the spirit. Together they question their own relationship with death.

Credit
Director/ Jorge Leon
Production company / Derives
Cast / Meg Stuart, Lidia Schoue, Michel Vassart, Noel Mineo, Benoit Lachambre, Simone Aughterlony, Thomas Wodianka
Director/Screenwriter / Jorge Leon
Producer / Julie Freres
Executive producers / Veronique Marit, Sabine Raskin
Cinematographers / Remon Fromont, Jorge Leon, Thomas Schira
Editor / Marie-Helene Mora
Music / George Van Dam, Walter Hus, Alex Verster
Duration / 82 minutes

Jorge León (Belgium)
Jorge León studied film in Brussels (INSAS). His interests led him into the documentary field as director and director of photography. He’s been working as photographer and videomaker, with a.o. Éric Pauwels, Wim Vandekeybus, Thierry De Mey, Xavier Lukomski, Olga de Soto, Ana Torfs, Meg Stuart, … His photographic works have been exhibited in Belgium and abroad and were published in different newspapers and magazines. At the kunstenfestivaldesarts 2010 in Brussels he created his first theatre production, Deserve, in collaboration with Simone Aughterlony.

Meg Stuart,
She is born in New Orleans, is an American choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Berlin and Brussels. The daughter of theatre directors, she began dancing and acting at an early age in California and regularly performed in her parents’ productions and those made by family friends. She made her first dance studies as a teenager focusing on simple movement actions. Stuart decided to move to New York in 1983 and studied dance at New York University. She continued her training at Movement Research where she explored numerous release techniques and was actively involved in the downtown New York dance scene.
Invited to perform at the Klapstuk festival in Leuven in 1991, she created her first evening-length piece, Disfigure Study. In this choreography, Stuart approaches the body as a vulnerable physical entity that can be deconstructed, distorted or displaced but still resonates and has meaning. Her subsequent piece, No Longer Readymade (1993), toured extensively and launched her artistic career in Europe. Interested in devising her own structure through which to develop artistic projects, Stuart founded Damaged Goods in Brussels in 1994.
www.damagedgoods.be/en/about

The evening is part of the program series CHOREOGRAPHY IN ACTION

CHOREOGRAPHY IN ACTION
A program where artists and other professionals share thoughts about artistic work through conversations, installations, performances and films. New guest every Monday. The program is primarily adressed to the artists in the field but open to all with an interest.

It is in English.

Free Entrance.