L’ESCALE / THE STOPOVER
COLLECTIF FAIRE-PART is an ensemble of Belgian & Congolese artists. Together they aim at telling new stories about Kinshasa, about Brussels, and the many complex relations in between. Next to their shared practice, they try to support each other in their personal artistic projects. The group was founded by filmmakers Anne Reijniers, Paul Shemisi, Nizar Saleh en Rob Jacobs when they first started working together in 2016. Over recent years the collective of four has shape-shifted into a larger group of regular collaborators between in Belgium and DR Congo, in which team composition changes with each project. Next to filmmaking take pictures, curate programs, give workshops and organize a biennial performance festival called SOKL.
L’ESCALE / THE STOPOVER (2022)
COLLECTIF FAIRE-PART
Selected by argos centre for audiovisual art, Belgium
Filmmakers Paul Shemisi and Nizar Saleh travel from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Germany for the screening of their new film. During a layover in Angola, they're stopped at the airport because the airline doesn't trust their documents to be real. While Paul and Nizar think they are being led to a hotel, where they would stay until their flight back home , they are actually being taken to an illegal detention center.
The filmmakers' testimony - which offers an eye-opening insight into the impossibility of safe and carefree travel for Congolese artists - stands in stark contrast with the seemingly peaceful images of cloud formations passing by an airplane window.
The team at argos centre for audiovisual art, said:
Solidarity is at the heart of the artistic approach of Collectif Fair-Part which is an ensemble of Belgian & Congolese filmmakers telling new stories about Kinshasa, about Brussels, and the many relations in between. As such, The film L’Escale is especially appropriate because it addresses the injustice of a social system that stigmatises some to the benefit of the carefree blindness of others. From the liminal space between layovers, airports, and airlines, they highlight the impossibility of safe and carefree travel for Congolese artists by placing it in stark contrast with the seemingly peaceful images of cloud formations passing by an airplane window.
Artist Biographies
Anne Reijniers (BE, she/her) is a filmmaker and farmer, interested in politics and botanics. Next to her collective practice with Faire-part, Anne investigates the potential of collective gardening as an act of anti-capitalist resistance.
Paul Shemisi (DRC, he/him) started by working as camera-assistant for foreign film crews in his home town of Kinshasa. After having gained experience he studied cinema at Les Ateliers Action, a film program organized by INSAS. He has worked on various films as co-director, scenarist, producer and cameraman, including Renaud Barret’s Système K.
Rob Jacobs (BE, he/they ) is a filmmaker and organizer. Next to his artistic work, Rob gives workshops on masculinity & violence in high schools.
Nizar Saleh (DRC, he/him) is filmmaker and photographer. After finishing his studies in visual communication at Académie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa, Nizar made several short docs looking at Kinshasa’s art scene. Together with his colleague cineast Paul Shemisi he founded production house ‘Kimpavita Film’.