Bjorn Gabriels

• Doctoral defence: 31 Augusut 2026 at 2.30 p.m.
• De Cinema, Maarschalk Gérardstraat 4, Antwerpen
• Supervisors: Gertjan Willems (UAntwerpen) & Bénédicte Rochet (UNamur)
• Confirm your attendance: bjorn.gabriels@uantwerpen.be​

Abstract

From 17 April to 19 October 1958, Belgium invited the world to Expo 58. The Brussels World’s Fair was conceived as a showcase of the country’s post-war reconstruction and modernisation, intended to position Belgium as a crossroads of international culture and politics. Under the slogan “Pour un monde plus humain”, the Fair sought to celebrate humanity under the banner of optimistic humanism. Expo 58 offered an impressive programme of cinematic spectacle. While the Belgian film sector had long lamented the absence of a fully developed national film industry, the Fair coincided with a remarkable surge in Belgian film production. This was particularly evident in colonial cinema, which in 1958 also marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Belgian state’s annexation of Congo. Late-colonial cinema concerning Congo and Ruanda-Urundi foregrounded Belgium as a ‘modern’ colonising power, benevolently committed to the development of cultural Others with whom it purported to maintain a fraternal relationship.

Belgium’s contribution to Expo 58, however, was not limited to its colonial mission. The World’s Fair also served as a major showcase for tourism and industry, while the darker side of ongoing modernisation remained largely invisible. The optimistic discourse surrounding Expo 58 left little room for social unrest or for critical perspectives on colonialism and industrialisation. Nevertheless, new forms of filmmaking emerged in which formal experimentation and critical engagement took precedence over the generally conventional expectations of commissioners. At the same time, the dominant system of commissioned filmmaking also attracted commercial, even populist criticism.

Drawing on a historical-poetical analysis of Belgian documentary cinema, this study explores prevailing conceptions of documentary circulating within the Belgian film landscape. Expo 58 serves as a prism through which to examine the interplay of innovation and continuity. Combining close textual analysis with contextual research, the dissertation investigates individual films while situating them within the institutional frameworks in which they were conceived.

Ultimately, this study argues that Expo 58 functioned not only as a platform for the construction of a national self-image within an internationalist framework, but also as a laboratory for documentary poetics, where different conceptions of film – and of reality – came into contact with one another. While Expo 58 sought to usher Belgium into post-war modernity, Belgian cinema remained rather hesitant in its engagement with emerging forms of cinematic modernism. At the same time, documentary filmmakers continuously negotiated how to give cinematic form to the idealised modernity unfolding before their eyes.