Laboratory

SIC believes in encounter: in the empowerment of coming together, thinking together, exchanging generously. It aspires to be an open community and network. SIC strives to maintain a horizontal approach, recognising the diversity in the group in terms of origins and experiences. SIC is inspired by the bounty that comes from blurring boundaries: art/cinema, fiction/documentary, poetry/essay. SIC is a laboratory for projects that look consciously and ethically at their own conditions of existence. SIC puts a unique focus on challenging form and film language and facilitates a critical social discourse.

We believe this to be an urgency for the multicultural society we live in. We are committed to transmitting an intercultural ethic, alert to the problems of the present and sensitive to emerging artistic trends.

SIC supports projects that propose new sensorial and poetic ways of storytelling: films, which transcend the existing categories of the film industry: experimental or documentary, cinéma du réel or fiction, long or short. Films that are made in the here and now, outside the economic, logistic and administrative timeframe of a classic production. Films carried by the passionate desire of the author. Production-wise light films, where the maker is often the only captain on board. SIC gives opportunities to unconventional, socially meaningful audiovisual forms, that would otherwise struggle to find an audience or a sounding board, by providing a safe environment for them to grow.

Instead of following the traditional path of writing with the purpose of shooting and then editing, SIC encourages the process of shooting and then thinking through the materials obtained. Rather than using writing as an interface that creates a distance (of time and language) between the maker and its subject, SIC encourages a process where writing a film emanates directly from the artistic materials: images, sounds, time, space, memories.

The participants of SIC have different backgrounds, different ages, different cultures and baggage. Artists, filmmakers, image or sound technicians with a personal project, journalists looking for a new form of storytelling, writers and activists who want to continue their endeavours in an artistic way, academics, anthropologists/artists with a film project close to their heart, self-taught people. Often, the participants have already had some kind of training. SIC is more of a workshop and laboratory than a training course or a school. Participants are expected to be present at the sessions, they engage also with the other ongoing projects.

The process is structured through the participants’ journey along a series of collective feedback sessions where she/he/they receive feedback on her/his/their ongoing work.

Collective sessions reunite all the coaches and the participants.These sessions are unique and the core of SIC. Twenty people brainstorm over a project and follow it during a year, pointing at dead angles, creating new perspectives and richness. These collective feedback sessions are demanding and intense.

Being filmmakers ourselves and knowing the creative process from the inside, we are very well aware of the strength, but also the fragility of this path. We have created SIC to help a filmmaker push her/his/their unique vision to the limit, but we care to surround her/him/them with resources in a benevolent and safe environment.

The core of the collective sessions are concentrated days of presentations of each project, followed by a generous, in-depth feedback round.

The presentation can take any form, but should always be based on showing audio/visual materials, so that the feedback is given on a concrete object. The presentation is not about proving that progress has been made or convincing the audience. It is an opportunity to test ideas, to share tryouts, to raise questions. As such, it is a vulnerable moment, but one that can be very beneficial for the process. We recommend that participants define for themselves what they would like to achieve with each presentation, and how they can best use this exceptional assembly to address the questions, difficulties or uncertainties they are facing in their project.
For each collective session (except the first) an external guest is invited. These are (inter)national filmmakers. They participate in the feedback session as a ‘fresh eye’, offer other perspectives and open up new avenues. They also offer a master class/workshop. It is also possible for external ‘spectators’ to join the sessions. Interested people need to write an email to register. We ask them to share in informal moments, not to speak in the feedback round.

FEEDBACK

Starting from the audiovisual material, the projects are discussed in depth and in detail, coaches and participants reflect together on form, intention and content. Everybody is encouraged to share thoughts and comments constructively. The heterogeneity of perspectives and ways of expressing something leads to new insights and discoveries with regard to the material and the project of the participants.

For the participants, reflecting on the projects of others can often mean a breakthrough in their own process. These sessions are also an invitation to share the project with an audience for the first time and to test it against their judgement, in order to be able to formulate and elaborate their own ideas as radically as possible. The feedback always goes towards the material and the project. There is no personal judgement.

Each participant has an individual coach, who guides the filmmaker through the SIC process by individual appointments. There are 6 coaches , each coach coaches 2 or 3 projects , each coach chooses in the selection process the projects to which she/he feels can contribute the best.

Between the group sessions, each coach has at least one to two appointments with the participant. The dialogue is structured by individual needs. Sometimes it is a joint reflection on the content, the structure of the film, sometimes it could be more technical support or advice on editing, sound. The mentor stimulates experimentation by, for example, suggesting individual ‘exercises’ that can inspire or help to handle the material differently.

These sessions are not listed on the SIC calendar. Each coach and participant organize together their own calendar. Meetings can take place physically, by phone or by online video conference.
The progress of the projects is followed systematically. But we don’t have any specific guidelines: each project demands different needs. We do not ask for a specific number of one-to-one meetings.
They depend on the needs of the project and the participant.

PARTICIPANTS

The participants are responsible for engaging in the process of SIC and for attending the proposed events. They are asked to participate in the collective sessions, sharing their own process and listening and giving feedback to their peers.

Making a film is first of all a desire. And it is the desire of the person making the film that leads others to support him/her. Attendance is therefore expected, as is keeping to the deadlines set, both for the collective sessions and those agreed with the project coach. Also, it is up to the participants to keep their coach informed of the progress of the work, not the other way round. It is the responsibility of every participant to get in contact with her/his coach to prepare the collective session in order to make it most fruitful.

If there is any problem in the communication, please refer to any other coach or the coordinator.
It can always happen that difficulties or misunderstandings arise between participant and coach. In that case please do not hesitate to talk with the coordinator or other SIC members. We are there to find a constructive solution. In specific cases it is possible to change coaches.

COACHES

The coaches are responsible to support the projects – individually and collectively. They comment on all the projects and their development during the collective sessions and the whole cycle. At these moments they participate as a coach for the other projects as well.

As an individual coach they will assist the presentations of the participants during the collective moments. It is important that the pair SIC participant/coach prepare the collective session together. There should be at least one contact between the coach and participant before each collective presentation. We want to avoid that these collective moments are not well prepared and that the coach cannot assist or support the presentation.

The coaches are asked to be present at the collective feedback moments. All other events of SIC they attend according to their interest and personal planning.

SIC invites inspiring (inter)national filmmakers for feedback and masterclasses. They offer a master class/workshop on a theme chosen in advance. This will often consist of a combination of presentation of own work and working methods and inspiring work by other authors, alternating with discussions and practical exercises. We also organise public screenings of the work of our guests in collaboration with partners. Please visit our Timeline for more information.

Each collective session also includes a specific intervention for insight and exchange:

CASE STUDIES I: PRODUCTION / ARTIST-RUN PRODUCTION / DISTRIBUTION OF EXPERIMENTAL NON-FICTION FILMS / IMPACT PRODUCING

This series of interventions aims to provide practice-based insights into the field of audiovisual arts, networks and questions that every maker faces: How and with whom to produce? Where to find funding? How to better represent one’s case? How to collaborate with peers? Where to show the work?
Meetings with Belgian Production Ateliers (aaapa) are organised.

CASE STUDIES II: MAKING OF FILMS
We see films that impress us, inspire us, make us think. How were they made? The coaches share on one of their films / work-in-progress and talk about the development from their first idea to the final product.

SIC FOCUS : REFLECTION/INSPIRATION; theory and current trends :

The invention of new forms of cinema does not come about without a broader reflection on the problems of our time and its visible or invisible influence on aesthetics and language. There is a need for a discourse on artistic strategies and methods in the field. We aim to bring the work and thinking of SIC filmmakers into resonance with that of other local and international artists.

The trajectory with SIC results in unique audiovisual works. Projects are given the space to become strong films, possibly in cooperation with ateliers or production houses. Films produced within the framework of SIC have in the past been selected for renowned film festivals, exhibitions and seminars. ( see: Screenings & Prices )

Each trajectory is individual. Sometimes a project is completed in 12 months, in other cases it reaches a stage where it can apply for (post-)production support together with a producer or an atelier.

DOCUMENTATION

We invite the participants to formulate in the beginning their ambitions what they want to achieve in the year and ask them for documentation; to note their process during the year and write a short review about their process, the development of their project, their experience with SIC by the end of the year.

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS / END OF THE YEAR EVENT

Finished films that have been developed in the frame of SIC are presented in Avant-Premieres.

We also organise a End-of-the-Year-Event / Work-in-Progress presentations depending on the advancement of the projects and in regards to if / how it makes sense to share them with a larger public at that stage.

If you are in need of material for testing, filming, recording, editing, screening: you can borrow material from the CBA stock according to availability at no cost and thus experiment with the most suitable medium for your project.

Check the CBA catalogue here: https://cbadoc.be/en/equipment-infrastructure/#

Or check our equipment here: https://soundimageculture.org/equipment

We look for projects that are authentic and push the borders of audiovisual language. We care about aesthetical and ethical reflections connected to the project. Our aim is to support the participant develop a radical artistic vision.

Applications for 2024 are now closed and will open in June 2024 for our 2025 program.

SIC is made of asymmetries. People come from different places, inhabit different bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures and have different boundaries. Take this into account, challenge your own position and let it be challenged, while respecting other people’s boundaries.

Everybody, to a certain extent, partakes in multiple systems of inequality by inhabiting different positions, roles and narratives. SIC wants to be a space where this can be actively addressed, and where learning and change can happen.

Blind spots and biases are real. The fact that one does not see them doesn’t mean they do not affect or harm others. Everyone is accountable for their lack of awareness as much as for their conscious acts, so everyone is responsible for willing to explore what they may not yet be aware of and opening up to see things in a different light and perspective.

In creating a culture of awareness, we experience that the complexity of the conversations and the processes grows. We observe that a safe environment offers more space to express oneself and to develop. It is in these conversations that our differences become an instrument to stimulate each other, open perspectives and potential.

This means that listening, offering support and holding people to account in a compassionate way is favoured over shunning people without offering resources to learn and change.

This said, at SIC we care for a healthy working environment, respectful working relationships and we denounce any conduct or statements that may be intimidating, disrespectful or violent in anyway.

GUIDELINES:

• The collective is set up to create a space of confidence where participants share ongoing work.
• Social diversity is seen as a reality. Differences are positively welcomed.
• Everyone involved with SIC (coaches, participants, guests and organization) treat each other with respect, regardless of the nature of their working relationship.
• We all contribute to an environment in which no form of offensive behavior is tolerated.
• We understand offensive behavior as, but not exclusively to, bullying, racism, sexism, discrimination, (passive) aggression and unwanted sexual behavior both through words or images and through actions or behaviors.
• The rules equally apply to online conversations and exchanges.

If you wish, you can report wrong behavior to someone else, your peers, your coach, the coordinator.

When people work together, power relations are always involved, consciously or unconsciously. Under normal circumstances, people handle those relationships well without harming the dignity, job satisfaction or productivity of either party. If situations arise where you feel that your work or well-being is hindered by unbalanced power relations, it should be possible to find a way to address this constructively. This course of action can help us grow and learn. It is important to state that you are always welcomed to talk with one of the coaches or the coordinator about it. If you have the feeling that this coach might not have enough distance to the situation, we would like to encourage you to talk with one of the external parties we propose below:

At ENGAGEMENT ( contact@engagementarts.be ) where you can talk to one of the certified confidants (EN/NL/FR) or at the Genderkamer of the Flemish Ombuds Service (EN/NL). Nina Callens and Viktor Van der Veken have an ombudsperson function that specifically deals with offensive behavior in the field of culture and arts. They will listen to you, they will try to understand your situation, give advice or support negotiations and they have a mandate to file an official complaint. You can contact them via genderkamer@vlaamseombudsdienst.be.

When you witness offensive behavior, you try to stand up for the person who experiences this behavior. If this does not work or is not possible, you take the responsibility to report the behavior you witnessed to one of the coaches, the coordinator and /or ENGAGEMENT or Genderkamer (see contacts mentioned above)

The team of SIC will treat and examine every report of transgressive behavior carefully and in full confidentiality. We consider each report as a learning moment and engage to look together for an appropriate solution.