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part of
double bill #20

Because We Are Visual

Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette, Belgium, 2010, 47’
IDFA

2011

Courtisane

2011

IFFR

2011

VAF Wildcard Documentaire

2010

In Because We Are Visual, Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes explore the world of public video journals. The Internet and its online communities are intended to bring people closer together and to connect them. Yet it seems that this virtual world confronts vloggers more than ever with their own loneliness. This documentary focuses on the experience of the body within this virtual space. By means of visual material gathered from online sources, the filmmakers create a unique poetic realm in which thoughts, fears, desires, and worries are shared via webcam and merge together.

Bio Gerard-Jan Claes

Gerard-Jan Claes (Belgium, 1987) is a filmmaker, lecturer, author, and curator. He is the co-founder and artistic director of the international film magazine Sabzian and co-founder of the independent film distributor Avila. As a filmmaker, Claes collaborates with Olivia Rochette (Belgium, 1987). Their joint filmography includes Because We Are Visual (2010), Rain (2012), Grands travaux (2016), Mitten (2019), and Kind Hearts (2022), which won the Grand Prix for Best film in the Generation competition at the Berlinale. Since 2009, the duo has provided audiovisual work for choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas. For …

Bio Olivia Rochette

Olivia Rochette (Belgium, 1987) is a director, cinematographer, and co-founder of the online film magazine Sabzian and Avila, a film distributor and online video platform for Belgian cinema. As a filmmaker, she collaborates with Gerard-Jan Claes (Belgium, 1987). Their shared filmography consists of Because We Are Visual (2010), Rain (2012), Grands travaux (2016), Mitten (2019) and Kind Hearts (2022). Since 2009, the duo provides audiovisual work for choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas. (Avila)
Because We Are Visual (Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes, 2010)
Because We Are Visual (Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes, 2010)
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Together, Alone

Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes’s Because We Are Visual (2010)

Dora Leu
09.03.2025
essay

Inevitably, some fourteen years after its making, Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes’ Because We Are Visual (2010) now feels like it covers a time long gone by, one when we still said video blog instead of vlog. In this collection of video diaries garnered from online public sources and then organised into chapters, Rochette and Claes provide no audio commentary on the material but make implicit remarks solely through editing.

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Credits

Editor
Gerard-Jan Claes, Olivia Rochette
Sound
Gerard-Jan Claes, Michel Schöpping, Olivia Rochette
Music
Billy Bultheel, Ethan Rose, Mount Kimbie
Film school
KASK School of Arts
Distributor
Avila
328
documentary coming-of-age poetry found footage

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