Mieriën Coppens &

Elie Maissin

Light, dark, and the shadows in between define the atmosphere in the collaborative work of Mieriën Coppens and Elie Maissin. The young filmmakers illuminate the harrowing, compelling actuality of undocumented migrants. Their understated, poetic cinematic language evokes divergent individual and collective ways of communicating: in different spoken languages, with the silent language of the body, with an environment.

The collection of short films being shown at Lumière are part of a growing series. The documentaries stand alone, but together they testify to a dedicated vision and a secure, socially engaged working method, which resulted in a long-term collaboration with the Brussels activist collective La Voix Des Sans Papiers. Doulo Kandé and Mamadou Taslim Diallo, members of the collective, regularly come into the picture. We see them mostly indoors, at work, in the places where they live, sometimes in necessary discussion with their fellow residents. There’s a lot we also don’t see: hours of footage that didn’t make it to editing, but especially what happens when the camera isn’t rolling. In dialogue with each other and with the people they’re filming, Coppens and Maissin show us sober fragments of a reality as a possibility, without finality.


Regular screenings: 15.10 / 18-21.10 at 14 uur (access with C0N10UR-pass).