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The Belgian filmmakers Olivia Rochette (1987) and Gerard-Jan Claes (1987) graduated in 2010 from KASK / School of Arts in Ghent. Their filmography includes Because We Are Visual (2010), Rain (2012), Grands travaux (2016), Mitten (2019), and Kind Hearts (2022), which had its world premiere at the Berlinale and was awarded the Grand Prix in the Generation competition. Their films are screened in cinemas, at national and international film festivals, and in museums and art centers.

Rochette and Claes are co-founders of the international film journal Sabzian, and Avila, a film distributor and online video platform for Belgian cinema. Since 2009, they have also collaborated with choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas, producing video work for their performances. Claes has written multiple texts and interviews on film, and has edited several publications on cinema and visual arts. Rochette also works as a cinematographer, and both teach as guest lecturers at LUCA School of Arts, P.A.R.T.S., and KASK / School of Arts.

All films are available for rent on Avila.

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Olivia Rochette (Belgium, 1987) and Gerard-Jan Claes (Belgium, 1987) live and work in Brussels. They studied film together at the KASK / School of Arts Ghent. Their graduation work Because We Are Visual (2010), a mid-length documentary, allows the viewer to discover the world of public video journals. Because We Are Visual was shown at national and international film festivals such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Videoex (Zürich, Switzerland), and was exhibited in museums such as S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium) and MAC’s (Grand-Hornu, Belgium).

In 2012 they finished Rain, a documentary about the transmission of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s contemporary choreography Rain to the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris. The documentary focuses on how De Keersmaeker and the Rosas dancers convey the dance idiom of the choreographer to the classically trained ballet dancers. Rain premiered nationally at the International Film Festival Ghent and was released in Belgian cinemas onwards. At the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam the documentary had its international premiere. The film was shown at other international festivals such as Cinéma du Réel at Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Internationalen Dokumentarfilmfestivals München and Los Angeles Film Festival.

In 2013 they co-founded Sabzian, an international film journal, hailing from Belgium, offering in-depth and many-voiced reflection on contemporary film experience and culture through online and offline publications, screenings and events.

From 2013 to 2016, they were artists in residence at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels. In 2016 they closed their residency with a screening of Grands travaux at the Beursschouwburg as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. The film Grands travaux is set in the Institute Anneessens-Funck, a Dutch-speaking vocational school in the centre of Brussels where young students have come to learn a trade. The film both documents and stages that which gives shape to their lives: the practical assignments and classes at school, football, the oscillation of their love lives, as well as the ongoing search for housing and employment. Grands travaux had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

In January 2019, Mitten had its avant-première at the Kaaitheater in Brussels. Mitten follows the final rehearsal weeks of Mitten wir im Leben sind, a performance by choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas, and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. The film had its international premiere at FIPADOC in Biarritz and was screened at various festivals, including the Dance on Camera Festival in New York.

In 2020, together with filmmaker and producer Ruben Desiere, they founded Avila, a film distributor and online video platform for Belgian cinema. Claes and Rochette are also active as guest lecturers at LUCA School of Arts (Brussels), P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), and KASK / School of Arts (Ghent).

Their latest documentary, Kind Hearts, a portrait of young love in Brussels, had its world premiere in 2022 at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was awarded the Grand Prix by the Berlinale Generation jury.

Claes has written multiple texts and interviews on film, and has edited several publications on cinema and visual arts, such as Francis Alÿs. The Nature of the Game (2023), Hong Sang-soo. Infinite Worlds Possible (2018) and Wang Bing. Filming a Land in Flux (2018). Rochette also works as a cinematographer.

They are currently working on a new film, Replay, produced by Accattone films.

All films are available for rent on Avila.