L'Âge d’Or Festival seeks to reconnect with the spirit of research, audacity and adventure of a mythical manifestation of the Royal Belgian Cinematheque, the EXPRMNTL festival (1949-1975), in which the first three L'Âge d’Or prizes were awarded. Designed by Jacques Ledoux, the festival was created to support the poetic and subversive films which, echoing L'Âge d’Or, Buñuel's 1930 film that broke with both cinematic and societal conformism.

From 6 to 11 October 2016, the third edition of L'Age d'Or Festival will be held in the CINEMATEK with Joana Hadjithomas, Peter Gidal, Shai Heredia, Mark Toscano and numerous guests. This year's programme includes retrospectives of Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand and other filmmakers from the West Coast, a selecion of Asian experimental cinema and the premiere of Brecht Debackere's documentry film EXPRMNTL.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual nonfiction showcase, founded on the most expansive possible view of documentary film, returns with new work from around the world and in a variety of genres. This year’s festival includes a retrospective of a titan of the avant-garde film world, Bruce Baillie; New York premieres of new films by Roberto Minervini, Ben Rivers, José Luis Guerín, and Thom Andersen; as well as the usual eclectic, globe-spanning host of discoveries by artists who are reenvisioning the relationship between cinema and reality. With many filmmakers appearing in-person with their work, Art of the Real continues to be one of the essential showcases for boundary-pushing nonfiction film.

Using a single hundred-foot roll of 16mm film to create an unedited camera-roll film -- fresh from the lab and onto the screen -- has a certain appeal to me. Partly it’s the practical aspect of DIY efficacy that comes with circumventing the costly steps of post-production. With editing there is something diluted from this raw power of the pure, unadulterated footage, no matter how masterfully the material is pruned and refashioned. Perhaps the phrase of Allen Ginsberg, Chogyam Trungpa, and others, “First thought, best thought” expresses this energy present in the camera-roll film?