Photo courtesy of the artist

Wednesday 6 | 6:00pm | Segal Theatre

Belgium | 2012 | 83 minutes | directed by Olivia Rochette & Gerard-Jan Claes
French with English subtitles

On 25th May 2011 the world-renowned Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris
presented Rain, its first ever performance of a choreography by Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker. The filmmakers Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes
followed the rehearsal process from the auditions to the opening performance.
The documentary focuses on how De Keersmaeker and the Rosas dancers
convey the dance idiom of the choreographer to the classically trained ballet
dancers. The rigidity of ballet gives way to another kind of severity, namely the
mathematical pattern of rain, which, however, conceals a powerful emotional
layering. A poetic documentary about searching, looking and hesitating within
the walls of the opera, which at times can be claustrophobic.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Olivia Rochette (Belgium, 1987) and Gerard-Jan Claes (Belgium, 1987)
live and work in Brussels. They studied film together at the KASK /
School of Arts Ghent. Their filmography includes Because We Are
Visual (2010), Rain (2012), Grands travaux (2016) and Mitten (2019).
Since 2009, the duo has worked for Belgian choreographer Anne
Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas. In 2013 they
co-founded Sabzian.be, a collection of online reflections on cinema
and an agenda listing cinephile events in Belgium and surroundings.