Hairy hooves and shiny fins, the show begins.

Cinema for the youngest moviegoers! Parents and children aged 4 and above are welcome to this screening, where we present a varied and original series of short films.

When young actress Julie rescues an injured stray dog from certain death, it seems like the beginning of a classic Hollywood story. However, she does not know that the animal is a white dog, trained by a racist to attack only black people. The white shepherd, gentle and affectionate at home, returns after a night-time escape with blood on his fur. What follows is not an animal drama, but a moral nightmare in Technicolour.

Throughout his impressive career, Samuel Fuller was not shy about tackling difficult themes and cultural sensitivities. With White Dog, this enfant terrible of New Hollywood cinema barks at the very foundations of America itself. His film is both pulp and parable, in short: a melodrama that growls. Julie's quest for redemption for her dog (and who knows, perhaps for her country) culminates in a battle between instinct and ideology, fuelled by fear and ignorance. Years after its release, White Dog still bites just as deep. A frenzied, poignantly topical fable about how racism is taught, passed on and, perhaps, unlearned.

This screening will be introduced by avid film lover Tim Maerschand. 

Animal news from Denmark caused a worldwide #uproar in 2014: Copenhagen Zoo had decided to kill their two-year-old giraffe Marius because he was surplus to their breeding programme. His death forms the starting point for Life and Other Problems, the latest film by Danish filmmaker Max Kestner. From this event unfolds a philosophical and playful quest for the big questions of life: Does consciousness really exist? And do trees know of my existence, as I know of theirs?

With his characteristically idiosyncratic style, Kestner travels around the world, from laboratories to primeval forests, seeking answers from veterinarians, physicists, zoo operators and philanthropic billionaires. Along the way, we discover how everything is connected, from cells to humans, from Earth to the universe. What could have been a sombre essay becomes, in Kestner's hands, a light-hearted, curious adventure full of humour and wonder, somewhere between John Berger and John Wilson.

This screening will be preceded by the short film Talking to Elephants (2025) by Juul Schöpping.

The Ryelandt Trio, known for their recordings of Flemish music, expands to a quintet for the occasion, joined by violinist Linde Verjans and violist Séamus Hickey. This Ryelandt Ensemble pairs music by Sjostakovitsj with that of — how could it be otherwise — Joseph Ryelandt.

Although Joseph Ryelandt (1870–1965) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) lived in largely overlapping historical periods, the two composers could hardly have been more different. Ryelandt, a French-speaking aristocrat from Bruges, wrote music that never sounds dissonant in any way, whereas Sjostakovitsj’s work contains a grimness closely tied to the constant threat of persecution in Stalin’s Communist Russia. Ryelandt’s lyrical melodies thus form a welcome counterbalance to the urgency that speaks from every note of Sjostakovitsj.

Cowabunga! We conclude our theme month with cinema's most beloved monsters. Flushed down the toilet as pets and drenched in radioactive sludge, baby turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael come under the guardianship of Sensei Splinter – a life-size rat who has retrained himself in the sewers to become a master of Eastern martial arts. The four may bear the names of Renaissance artists, but their attitude is that of runaway youths. Skating, pizza-slurping and beatboxing, this septic superhero team scours New York to fight crime. When the mysterious Foot Clan appears on the scene, the Turtles are forced to crawl out of their shells and save the city from the sinister Shredder.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) was the definitive 80s animated series, a colourful cocktail of everything that was considered cool at the time. After much nagging from everyone's mothers, it finally became a feature film. Although many studio executives believed the film was doomed to fail, TMNT became the biggest blockbuster of the early 90s. Animatronics legend Jim Henson designed the robotically controlled turtle suits. Reboot after reboot shows how these reptilian heroes ooze their way into the present, but nothing beats the original. Turtle Power, indeed.