On the occasion of the avant-première of Waiting Working Hours, Ben De Raes compiled two screening programmes. In the first part he is presenting two love letters to the life and ingenuity of the factory as well as a filmic critique on the general lack of love for the subject of factories in film. In the second part you’ll see four examples of a less conventional approach to capturing labour on film, and the avant-première of Ben De Raes’ Waiting Working Hours.

With a ticket comes a real “workers lunch box” filled with (vegetarian) meatloaf sandwiches and sides prepared by dagvorm_cinema. Take a seat in the canteen!
www.dagvorm.be

PROGRAMME

18:30 PART 1

FACTORY - Sergei Loznitsa
This film depicts a day in the life of a factory, highlighting the coercive force of these (wo)man-powered macro-machines on the progress of human civilisation.
2004, 30’, RU, no dialogue

WORKERS LEAVING THE FACTORY - Harun Farocki
It’s no coincidence that this essay-film shares its title with the famous first film of the Lumière Brothers; in it Harun Farocki argues that this landmark in film history already predicted the eventual disappearance of this form of industrial labour and hence the radical social transformation this would represent.
1995, 36’, DE, English spoken, no subs

PLANETA FABRICA - Julia Zakia 
This film by Julia Zakia looks back on the microcosmic world of a bustling hat factory that has closed its doors after many years of operation. A beautifully-shot film that chooses poetry over mourning.
2019, 11’, BR, no dialogue

20:30 PART 2 

WAITING WORKING HOURS, Ben De Raes (2019, 16’, BE) avant-première
On a street in Brussels, day labourers are looking for a job. Gathered in small groups, they wait for hours, hoping for someone to pick them up. The ‘lucky’ few are dropped off at a construction site or field but employers pay meagre salaries and social security is not on the table.
In Waiting Working Hours, the voices of the workers are mixed with Google Street View images. Their testimonies, in a multitude of languages, are pieced together to create a dialogue about labour, economics and life. Based on the insights of the workers, De Raes examines their current situation, their thoughts on labour and their dreams for the future.
French, Arabic, English spoken, English subs

FE26 - 
Kevin Jerome Everson
Fe26 is the scientific name for iron on the periodic table of elements. This film follows two men around the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio, and examines the tensions between illegal work and the basic survival tactics that arise in areas of high unemployment.
2014, 8’, US, English spoken, no subs

SHOGUN - Manon De Sutter
Shōgun reflects on the social construct of money, using it as pivot for play.
“If money is the bond binding me to human life, binding society to me, connecting me with nature and man, is not money the bond of all bonds?” – Karl Marx
2018, 21’, BE, Dutch, French, German spoken, English subs

WOMEN WORKERS LEAVING THE FACTORY - Jose Luis Torres Leiva
A portrait of four women who leave the factory where they work, then go to the beach.
2005, 21', CL, no dialogue

As part of ‘We Love You’, a multidisciplinary programme on love beyond the romantic and the self - sep oct nov dec 2019.