ABOUT

Filmmaker An van. Dienderen works at the intersection between documentary, anthropology and visual arts. While exploring various documentary strategies and the relation between self and other, she also investigates the medium of film in a self-reflective way. She investigates the opposition of fact and fiction, imagination and observation, representation and experience, using the importance of the image in our multicultural society as a point of departure. Her work shows the absurd, poetic, and often touching stories that these oppositions can hold in everyday life. (Source: Contour 7)

She graduated in audiovisual arts (Sint-Lukas, Brussels), obtained a PhD in Comparative Cultural Sciences (Ghent University), and was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley with Trinh Minh-ha. She made several documentaries screened worldwide, awarded with (inter)national prizes. Films include Visitors of the Night (’98), Site (’00), Tu ne verras pas Verapaz (’02), The Ephemerist (’05) Patrasche, a Dog of Flanders – Made in Japan (’08), Cherry Blossoms (’12), Letter Home (’15), Lili (’15), PRISM (’21) and KOPIRAET (forthcoming). Her work has been shown on the New York film festival, FID Marseille, MoMa Museum of Modern Art, NY, DocFest Sheffield, Videonale Bonn, International Filmfestival Rotterdam, BFI festival London, 25 FPS Festival Zagreb, Yerba Buena Center San Fransisco, SCCA Center for Contemporary Art Ljublijana, Contemporary Art Biennale Talinn, Contour 7, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Belluard Festival (Fribourg), Margaret Mead Film and Video festival (New York), DMZ Korea International documentary festival, International Short film Festival Oberhausen, FIDOCS Festival Internacional de Documentales de Santiago, Museum of Contemporary Arts Athens, Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento Buenos Aires, Courtisane, Beursschouwburg, MuZee Ostend, KANAL, FoMu, etc and is represented by Argos, Brussels; Women make Movies, NY, Icarusfilms, NY Andana Films and True Story.

Her work is reviewed in The New York Times, Indiewire, Awards Watch, Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Women and Hollywood, International Cinephile Society, The Guardian, Rotten Tomatoes, Educational Media Review, Bota Sot (Albanian newspaper), DOX, De Morgen, Knack, De Standaard, VRT, Klara,..

She regularly publishes on documentary & visual/performative anthropology and is a lecturer & artistic researcher at the KASK & Conservatorium, School of Arts, Ghent. Her research projects are: You Turn Me: Similarities and differences in art and anthropology (2008-2015), China Girls and the Color Genie: a multichronotopic research (2015-2019), White-centricity challenged through co-creation (2019-ongoing). Research topics deal with transdisciplinary subjects such as the racist bias in technology, speculative documentary, collaborative practices, the tension between artistic and ethnographic research, critique of (western) representational regimes of previously colonized communities,.. She also works as a promoter of PhD candidates, initiated research groups and is a member of advisory research commissions.

Together with theatre maker Thomas Bellinck and photographers Max Pinckers and Michiel Decleene she founded The School of Speculative Documentary (2018-ongoing). Filmmaker Rosine Mbakam and artist Jelena Juresa are members.  She initiated the international art workspace SoundImageCulture  (2006-ongoing) with Laurent Van Lancker, Eric Pauwels, Didier Volckaert, Rudi Maerten and Reinhart Cosaert. Later on Els Opsomer, Mary Jiminez, Patrick Codenys, Susanne Weck, Effi&Amir and many others joined. She initiated the master class & research group Expanded Documentary (2012) with Sarah Vanagt, Jasmina Fekovic, Ben Russell and Laurent Van Lancker. With Sarah Vanagt and Jasmina Fekovic she curated the program DocHouse at Beursschouwburg, Brussels (2008-2010). She started the workshops Visual Anthropology (1996 – 2006) at Ghent University & Luka, School of Arts, Brussels: with Rik Pinxten, Rob Rombout, Didier Volckaert, Eric Pauwels, Reinhart Cosaert, Rudi Maerten en Laurent Van Lancker. Together with Didier Volckaert she started the production company Elektrischer Schnellseher (1999 – ongoing). She curated several art & film programs with Cis Bierinckx.

contact@anvandienderen.net