Special Screenings

And there’s more! Besides its thematic film programs, the festival offers several special screenings. There’s a full evening devoted to the legendary grindhouses of New York’s 42nd Street, when the full experience is recreated with a triple bill.
A conference examines the continued importance of these exploitation films in the present cinematic culture. One evening will highlight Belgian exploitation films. Three afternoon shows: one of them reliving the matinee shows of the 60’s, David Bowie in “Labyrinth”, a Cineketje screening for the children and finally your annual appointment with Shortscreen offers this year’s weirdest short films.

In the 60’s and 70’s, New York’s Times Square was one of the most notorious entertainment districts in America. Its main artery was on 42nd Street: behind an uninterrupted strip of flickering neon signs you could find numerous cinemas, sex shops, gun stores, strip bars and tourist traps. Grindhouses like the Cameo, Lyric, Empire, Rialto and Apollo showed the wildest and most extreme films: blaxploitation, sexploitation, eurotrash, kung fu, nudie cuties, horror, mondo and biker films. A true nirvana for B-to-Z film lovers, but a visit was not without danger for life or limb. Society’s outcasts and misfits found their natural habitat in the seedy district, as “the other” was not only found on the screen but also present inside the cinemas, crawling with junkies, transsexual prostitutes, criminals and petty thieves.
With “42nd Street Forever Night”, Offscreen wants to recreate an authentic grindhouse experience at Cinema Nova with hard seats, sticky floors and vintage 35mm oddities.

Grindhouse cinema is dead... or is it? Although most of its exhibition venues disappeared long ago and ‘true’ grindhouse films are no longer produced, these six talks and an industry panel discussion will examine the continued importance of the grindhouse and exploitation in contemporary cinematic culture.

A nostalgic trip back to the Golden Age of cinema: the Sunday afternoon Matinee screening for all ages. Welcomed by old school hostesses, treat yourself to ice cream and a vintage sixties extravaganza in glorious CinemaScope and Technicolor!

“Cinema Bis” is a general term that refers to cheaply produced films – from B to Z – from the Golden Age of the 60’s and 70’s in popular genres like horror, adventure or erotica. Some Belgians made a name for themselves in this underbelly of the film industry. They dared to confront a social and moral context that was much stricter than it is now, whilst touching on various taboo subjects. These curiosities were appreciated by a broad audience and shown at the local “grindhouse” cinemas in Brussels, like the Victory on Rue Neuve or Cinema Apollo on Rue de Malines.

Psychological drama’s, nerve-wracking thrillers and horror films: but what about the children? Offscreen does not forget the little ones and offers a moment of tranquillity, in collaboration with Filem’on.
A collection of short films from all corners of the world in two screenings, one for 3 year old and above and one for 5 year old and above: hand drawn, stop-motion or computer-animated, sharing “the house” as their main theme. The little faces will light up with wonder as they watch the adventures of the little cat that has the house all to itself, the house that leaves the city for a quiet life in the country, the house mouse that wants to get everything in its proper order or Buster Keaton who gets offered a house but receives it as a do-it-yourself kit!