yanco is an online magazine and streaming library dedicated to short-form moving image. Navigating the intersections of curating, writing, archiving, and publishing, yanco explores the diverse culture of cinema and image-making beyond the feature-film format.
As art forms with distinct means of production and distribution, short films and videos often allow for greater thematic and formal freedom, enabling them to address social and political issues more directly. This added value of experimentation and topical relevance is distinctive to the medium. Historically, short film has been mobilised by experimental filmmakers and minority communities for radical ends, and with short-form filmmaking ever-present in contemporary media, yanco carefully hand-picks and then contextualises those works we’re excited to feature.
yanco’s offer is a mix of media that probe contemporary film grammar: deconstructing images, tapping into narrative fragmentation, and embracing societal engagement. By mapping the many short films on offer, yanco provides a guide for culture lovers and cinephiles, filmmakers, and those willing to be surprised.
Archiving is curating the future, and that requires caution and care. yanco actively strives to curate in a politically and ethically responsible manner: to cherish without censoring and to provoke without exploiting. In doing so, yanco contributes to the development of a more profound film culture in Belgium, reflecting on film as an art form and on short film as a medium in its own right.
