Genres d’à côté was created in 2001! Its goal: to promote alternative sexuality and gender. How: essentially by invading cinema halls and taking over the big screen. Its main activities are directly rooted in the world of cinema, a world where it likes to overturn the standardised performances and established check boxes.
Each month (1st Thursday of the month at Aventure Cinema, Galerie du Centre in Brussels), the film club immerses us in the various issues surrounding gender: Gays, lesbians, queer, trans, feminist ... with an exploration of different sexualities and minority lifestyles. Screenings focused on surprise and quality, highlighting recent films, and films with limited or no distribution in Belgium. Even previews and relocation of one-off screenings in other cities are sometimes added to the programme.
But only one film per month, it’s still very frustrating ... This is why Genres d’à côté launched the Pink Screens Film Festival. Each year, Pink Screens is ten days of pure pleasure, an abundance of films, exhibitions and also parties including our not-to-be-missed Pink Night closing party. Ten days to assault and deconstruct the binary normality: female / male, male / female, homo / hetero, dykes / queers, trans / bio ... This is happening at Nova Cinema, a Mecca of the alternative scene in Brussels, which wears for the occasion the colors of the festival and whose flexible projection formats perfectly suit the boisterous spirit of the festival. Each edition of Pink Screens invites you to discover shorts and feature films, fiction, documentaries and experimental films, both from here and elsewhere, always an impertinent and often disconcerting appointment with quality films.
You will soon realise that the team of Genres d’à Côté, composed entirely of volunteers, comes from very different backgrounds, all brimming with infectious energy.
Sometimes, as a follow on from the films or to address issues related to gender, gueulantes (coffee house style democratic debates) are proposed: a voice, primarily a speech by the public, initiated by just one speaker who facilitates the free flow of opinions. So it is you, with your good mood, bad faith, your sensitivity, your identity, which make the debate ... always with respect and good humor.
And last but not least, each second Saturday of the month at the Rainbow House, Genres d’à Côté is holding a bar aimed at gathering the team, their friends and anyone around a drink with a varying musical atmosphere (pop-alternative rock, italodisco, hip-hop, riot grrrls ...).
To be kept informed of the activities: subscribe to the newsletter via their website www.gdac.org.