Five editions, five moments in the history of avant-garde film

Organised as part of the Deuxième Festival du Film et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, the first edition of EXPRMNTL took place between 25 June and 8 July 1949 at the Knokke Casino. Jacques Ledoux, curator at the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, wished to present a historical retrospective of avant-garde cinema, whilst also providing an opportunity for new directors and artists to showcase their works. Consequently, this inaugural edition featured films out of competition by established figures such as Germaine Dulac, Luis Buñuel, Walter Ruttmann, etc. Only films produced from 1940 onwards were eligible to compete, which meant that names such as Norman McLaren and Oskar Fischinger were able to make their mark. At the end of the competition, the official prizes were awarded to Oskar Fischinger, Eli Lotar, the brothers James and John Whitney, Luigi Veronesi and Norman McLaren.

After a hiatus of almost a decade, Jacques Ledoux organised the second edition of EXPRMNTL in 1958, as part of the famous Brussels World Fair. For this reason, this was the only edition in which the festival did not take place in Knokke, but in the Belgian capital instead. On this occasion, the retrospective format gave way to a film competition in its own right, with many of the entries having been directed by as yet unknown filmmakers. The second edition of EXPRMNTL also opened the doors to a greater diversity of countries: nations such as Brazil, Japan, Argentina, Mexico and Poland had directors taking part in the competition for the first time, some of whom received official awards. The programme ran from 21 to 25 April 1958. On the final day, the jury – comprising Alexandre Alexeieff, John Grierson, Norman McLaren, Curt Oertel, Pierre Prévert, Man Ray and Edgar Varèse – awarded the official prizes to Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica, Len Lye, Yoram Gross, Roman Polanski, Hy Hirsch, Hilary Harris, Francis Thompson and Rodolfo Kuhn.

In 1963, the now well-established EXPRMNTL returned to its original venue, the Knokke Casino. This edition also established a new format that would be used until the very last festival: the event would always take place between Christmas and New Year. Having brought together a new crop of avant-garde film talent, EXPRMNTL 3 featured a strong contingent of American filmmakers, including Kenneth Anger, Gregory Markopoulos, Madeline Tourtelot and even the future director of commercial hits, Brian De Palma. Invited to serve on the jury, Jonas Mekas was also in attendance, alongside his friend P. Adams Sitney. The event ended up being marred by accusations of censorship levelled at the organisers, who banned the screening of Jack Smith’s film Flaming Creatures. This caused a great stir amongst the participants, who decided to organise private screenings of the film as a form of protest. Jonas Mekas, in particular, was deeply troubled by the situation and resigned from the position he had been offered. At the end of the festival, a jury comprising James Broughton, Jean Cayrol, William Klein, Jan Lenica, Lorenza Mazzetti, Norman McLaren, Jørgen Roos and Herbert Vesely awarded prizes to the following directors: Ferdinand Kittl, Stan VanDerBeek, Gregory Markopoulos, Alexandre Alexeieff, Claire Parker, Walerian Borowczyk, Claude Jutra and Vlado Kristl. In recognition of his work, the committee awarded Jack Smith the special "film maudit" prize for Flaming Creatures.

Perhaps the most iconic and memorable edition of the festival, EXPRMNTL 4 opened the door to a wider variety of forms of artistic experimentation, including sound and physical performances, exhibitions and symposia on the avant-garde movement as part of its programme. Reflecting the political and social tensions of the 1960s, and perhaps as a harbinger of the cultural revolution of 1968, the event was marked by protests and interventions led by iconic figures of the period, such as Jean Jacques-Lebel taking to the stage to announce the "Miss Expérimentation 1967" award, followed by the entrance of naked people. Among the prominent attendees were Yoko Ono, Michael Snow and Marcel Hanoun, to name but a few. In the realm of experimental cinema, Jacques Ledoux wished to organise an exclusive competition comprising films made specifically for the festival. To this end, he established a partnership with the Belgian company Gevaert, which would distribute 16 mm film stock to selected directors and cover the costs of processing. Whilst this ensured that EXPRMNTL had access to a selection of films never before seen, it also provided a major incentive for emerging filmmakers to produce work, as film was expensive and its processing was hardly affordable. One of the young directors who benefited from this innovation was Martin Scorsese, whose acclaimed short film The Big Shave was shot on Gevaert colour film. Michal Snow’s structural cinema classic Wavelength was another film screened at the festival, winning the Grand Prix Gevaert-Agfa. In addition to Snow, the jury awarded official prizes to Lutz Mommartz, Robert Nelson, Ake Ärenhill and Stephen Dwoskin. Scorsese’s The Big Shave won the Prix de l’Age d’Or.

The latest edition of EXPRMNTL took place between 25 December 1974 and 2 January 1975, and once again broadened the festival’s scope to include other forms of artistic expression, such as political music, theatre and the emerging art form of video art. With fewer films in competition than in previous editions, it once again featured a strong contingent of American directors. Belgium, England and Germany were also well represented. Although less controversial than the previous edition, EXPRMNTL 4 featured a screening of Thierry Zeno’s film Vase de Noces, which shocked audiences by depicting a romantic relationship between a man and a pig. At the end of the competition, Dore O., Tsuneo Nakai, Michio Okabe, Anna Ambrose, Anthony McCall, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Mike Dunford, Thierry Zeno, J. J. Murphy, Richard Woolley, Jean Van Helden and Claudine Eizykman received awards for their work. More than two decades later, EXPRMNTL saw its final edition come to an end. By then, the international avant-garde film scene was completely different from what it had been in 1949. Now, with internationally recognised directors and closer ties to other art forms, it came to be recognised as an artistic medium in its own right. Although many wonder why EXPRMNTL did not take place more often, perhaps the very fact that it was a sporadic festival is precisely why it was such an exclusive, artistically rich event, imbued with a unique spirit of cooperation amongst its participants.