Biography
Eric Pauwels was born in Antwerp in 1953. Passionate about cinema and fascinated by anthropology, he completed a doctorate in cinematography at the Sorbonne with Jean Rouch, one of his fundamental influences. Between 1976 and 1983, he made a series of 10 ethnographic documentaries on possession dances in Southeast Asia.
Back in Europe, he continued to film dancing bodies, provoking experiments between film and dance, with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Violin Phase, 1985), Michèle-Anne De Mey (Face à face, 1988; Trois danses hongroises de Brahms, 1990) or Pierre Droulers (Improvisation, 1986). In his films, he examines the actor’s game: in Hamlet ou les métamorphoses du jeu (1986), he films an actor performing Hamlet for hours on end, increasingly drunk. His interest in painting began with the figure of Saint Sebastian in a highly personal travel diary (Voyage iconographique: le martyre de Saint Sébastien, 1989).
Over the years, he became increasingly involved in personal cinema, where documentary and fiction intertwine, as in Un Film (1986), Les rives du fleuve (1991), and La fragilité des apparences (1993). Finally, the figure of the filmmaker becomes increasingly present with a series of first-person films in “La trilogie de la cabane”, including Lettre d’un cinéaste à sa fille (2000), Les films rêvés (2010) and La deuxième nuit (2016). His last film is Diary of September (2019).
“No image without a look, and no film without a need!”Eric Pauwels
Published works
1988 – KIRILOV, proposition pour un jeu théâtral à deux comédiens d’après les Possédés de Dostoïevski, Editions de la Bellone, Bruxelles
2008 – LE VOYAGE DE GASPARD, Éditions de l’Œuvre, Paris
2016 – QUAND J’ÉTAIS PETIT LES COSMONAUTES VIVAIENT AUSSI LONGTEMPS QUE LES CHÊNES, Editions Motifs, Paris
Filmography
1976/83 – Series of 10 ethnographic documentaries on possession dances
1985 – VIOLIN FASE 12′ dance film
1986 – HAMLET OU LES MÉTAMORPHOSES DU JEU 47′ documentary
1986 – IMPROVISATION 12′ dance film
1986 – RITES OF POSSESSION IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA 50′ documentary
1986 – UN FILM 47′ DOCUMENTARY
1988 – FACE A FACE 40′ dance film
1989 – VOYAGE ICONOGRAPHIQUE: LE MARTYRE DE SAINT SÉBASTIEN 52′ documentary
1990 – TROIS DANSES HONGROISES DE BRAHMS 12′ dance film
1991 – LES RIVES DU FLEUVE 57′ documentary
1992 – LETTRE A JEAN ROUCH 7′ documentary
1993 – LA FRAGILITÉ DES APPARENCES 45′ documentary
1998 – POUR TOUJOURS 70′ fiction
2000 – LETTRE D’UN CINEASTE À SA FILLE 47′ documentary
2010 – LES FILMS RÊVÉS 180′ documentary
2016 – LA DEUXIÈME NUIT 80′ documentary
2017 – TO SPLIT OR NOT TO SPLIT 7′ documentary
2019 – JOURNAL DE SEPTEMBRE 80′ documentary