Bjorn Gabriels, film critic & researcher

Adopting a deliberately hybrid stance, my writing moves between academic research and film criticism, finding expression across a diverse spectrum of media.

This bibliography is gradually being reconstructed and expanded. At present, publications that appeared exclusively in print between 2006 and 2022 have yet to be added.

The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)

Academic publications

2026

  • Gertjan Willems, Bjorn Gabriels and Bénédicte Rochet (eds.), Cinema in post-war Belgium : rebuilding screens and identities, 1944-1967 (Leuven University Press, 2026), 384 p. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, Gertjan Willems and Bénédicte Rochet, ‘Introduction: cinema in post-war Belgium’, in Gertjan Willems, Bjorn Gabriels and Bénédicte Rochet (eds.), Cinema in post-war Belgium : rebuilding screens and identities, 1944-1967 (Leuven University Press, 2026), p. 17-56. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Meeting another Waterloo: Edmond Bernhard and the “metaphysical subversion of the tourist film”’, in Gertjan Willems, Bjorn Gabriels and Bénédicte Rochet (eds.), Cinema in post-war Belgium : rebuilding screens and identities, 1944-1967 (Leuven University Press, 2026), p. 281-297. [read here]
  • Matthias De Groof, Bjorn Gabriels and Koen Aerts, ‘A Royal Zero Hour?: Belgian King Leopold III and SS officer Ernst Schäfer Making Masters of the Congo Jungle (1958)’, in Gertjan Willems, Bjorn Gabriels and Bénédicte Rochet (eds.), Cinema in post-war Belgium : rebuilding screens and identities, 1944-1967 (Leuven University Press, 2026), p. 339-360. [read here]

2025

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘The multimedia show Congorama at Expo 58: the Colonial as Spectacle, the Spectacle as Colonial’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 46:2 (2025 online first; print issue 2026), p. 322-346. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, [review] ‘Harun Farocki: Forms of Intelligence’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 45:1 (2025), p. 222-224. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, [review] ‘James Harvey (2023). John Akomfrah‘, Film-Philosophy 29:2 (2025), p. 512-515. [read here]

2024

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Hand in hand? Documentary Film and the Paradox of a Belgo-Congolese Union at Expo 58’, Studies on National Movements 12:1 (2023), p. 42-70. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Beniest, Hein’, Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging, 2024. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Buyens, Frans’, Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging, 2024. [read here]

2023

  • Bjorn Gabriels, Gertjan Willems and Bénédicte Rochet, ‘Zero hour? Reconstructing post-war Belgian cinema’, CINEMATEK, december (2023), p. 77-78.

2016

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Met vader Conscience naar de bioscoop en andere jongensdromen’, in: Kris Humbeeck, Kevin Absillis and Janneke Weijermars (eds.), De grote onleesbare. Hendrik Conscience herdacht (Academia Press, 2016), p. 417-461.

In the spotlight

Cinema in Post-War Belgium

Edited volume

Between the liberation of 1944 and the mid-1960s, cinema in Belgium was both booming and fragile. Film theatres across the country attracted record audiences and were rebuilt into dazzling spaces, while local film production remained a precarious enterprise. This book brings that paradoxical landscape to life. It explores cinephile culture and institutional developments alongside popular comedies, art documentaries, colonial films, industrial productions and experimental shorts. Sixteen chapters show how cinema related to Belgium’s shifting identities in a period of reconstruction and transition. The book also challenges long-standing notions of a linguistic divide within Belgian cinema, showing that in the decades before regional film policies emerged, filmmakers and audiences largely operated within a shared national film culture. Generously illustrated and grounded in fresh archival research, this is the first comprehensive history of Belgian cinema in the post-war decades. Situating Belgian cinema within wider cultural, political and international contexts, it offers a compelling resource for film historians, cultural scholars, and heritage institutions.

Open access

Meeting another Waterloo

Book chapter

Waterloo (1957) by Belgian filmmaker Edmond Bernhard subverts the conventions of both the tourist film and official historical narratives, transforming a commissioned short into a reflective, almost metaphysical meditation on history, memory and cinematic representation.

Open access

A Royal Zero Hour?: Belgian King Leopold III and SS officer Ernst Schäfer making Masters of the Congo Jungle (1958)

Book chapter

The production and reception history of ‘nature documentary’ Masters of the Congo Jungle segues into a thrilling piece of post-war history where hypercoloniality meets the afterlives of Nazism and World War II resistance.

Open access

The Multimedia Show ‘Congorama’ at Expo 58: The Colonial as Spectacle, the Spectacle as Colonial

Article

In 1958, Belgian colonial PR agency Inforcongo presented the multimedia show Congorama at the Brussels World’s Fair. As a pinnacle of late-colonial propaganda, the spectacle purported to narrate Congo’s history in thirty minutes, spanning from the nineteenth-century Leopoldian civilising mission, which supposedly removed the shackles of barbarism, to the idealised Belgo-Congolese union of the 1950s. In an attempt to immerse visitors in an experience of authenticity and align itself with the Fair’s belief in scientific progress, Inforcongo claimed the automated presentation – featuring three film screens, moving panels, music and voice-over – constituted a new artistic form. However, Congorama reveals a clash of discourses: while Inforcongo celebrated technological advancements ushering in a new intellectual era and bringing forth new art forms, the content itself remained resolutely entrenched in their instrumentalised version of the past.

Read here

Film criticism, art journalism and other texts

* This bibliography is a work in progress to which new texts and publications predating 2021 are progressively being added.

2026

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Verscheurd, verwrongen’, Fantômas, 25 April 2026. [read here]
  • _, ‘Als beelden sprekend liegen. John Smiths The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)’, trans. Niels Putman, yanco.be, 31 March 2026. [read here]

2025

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Hearing Images Lie: The Girl Chewing Gum‘, Talking Shorts, 20 March 2025. [read here]

2024

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Opstaan uit de nacht’, Fantômas, 14 October 2024. [read here]
  • _, ‘Circle of shame: The Smell of Burning Ants‘, 3 August 2024. [read here]
  • _, ‘Want we zijn (niet) voor elkander geboren’, Fantômas, 16 June 2024. [read here]
  • _, ‘Gestes du repas’, yanco.be, 11 June 2024.
  • _, ‘De glibberige ironie van de griezelvallei’, Fantômas, 7 April 2024. [read here]
  • _, ‘Aandacht in meervoud’, Fantômas, 5 March 2024. [read the online version here; read the Dutch, French and English print version here]
    This interview was commissioned by argos on the occasion of their exhibition ‘Herman Asselberghs: Times Wasted’ (see here).

2023

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Brieven zonder papieren. Over de constellatie ‘Malgré tout’ van Mieriën Coppens en Elie Maissin’, yanco.be, 12 October 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Filmmakers treden op als curator tijdens biënnale Contour’, Apache, 8 September 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Herzog: mythe, museum, landschap’, Fantômas, 19 July 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Lumumba tussen toeristische attractie en politieke utopie’, Apache, 26 June 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Nabije afstand’, Fantômas, 17 May 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Fundamenteel dynamisch. Over Charles Dekeukeleire en de essentie van film’, yanco.be, 4 April 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Hoe kunst collectief werkt’, Fantômas, 14 March 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Berlinale’, Fantômas, 3 March 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: IFFR’, Fantômas, 16 February 2023. [read here]
  • _, ‘Religieuze beweging betaalt tol voor kaping van Chinese staatstelevisie’, Apache, 24 January 2023. [read here]

2022

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Het is eindelijk de beurt aan Chantal Akerman’, Apache, 22 December 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Boomhutten bouwen’, Fantômas, 16 November 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Harmonie aan zee. Henri Storcks Trains de plaisir (1930), yanco.be, 30 October 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Luister naar het duister’, Fantômas, 18 October 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Zweetparels voor de zwijnen’, Fantômas, 12 October 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Pamperparanoia’, Fantômas, 28 September 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Binnengaats bezocht’, Fantômas 4 (July 2022), p. 48-57. [purchase here]
  • _, ‘Ode aan de oppervlakte: de dieperik in’, Fantômas, 21 June 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Het verdwijnen van de vaste lijn’, Fantômas, 9 June 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Waarom we steeds opnieuw naar geweld grijpen’, Apache, 1 June 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘De collectieve verhalen van Graphoui’, Apache, 11 May 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Met liefde bekeken. Gerard-Jan Claes en Olivia Rochette over Kind Hearts‘, Fantômas 3 (May 2022), p. 36-45. [purchase here]
  • _, ‘Na het einde van de oorlog start een nieuwe strijd in Oekraïne’, Apache, 29 April 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Courtisane’, Fantômas, 3 April 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Technologie in film niet per definitie ideologisch neutraal’, Apache, 31 March 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Gedeelde kennis is de toekomst’, Apache, 21 March 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘De coulissen van het Oekraïense strijdtoneel’, Apache, 7 March 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘De hand die deelt’, Fantômas, 6 March 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Berlinale III’, Fantômas, 21 February 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Berlinale I’, Fantômas, 12 February 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Monica Vitti, een terugblik…’, Fantômas, 3 February 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Thierry Michel doorbreekt stilzwijgen over straffeloosheid in Congo’, Apache, 2 February 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Verliefd op verhalen’, Fantômas 2 (February 2022), p. 12-14. [purchase here]
  • _, ‘Schrappen wat niet past. Documentaire met/zonder discours’, Fantômas 2 (February 2022), p. 73-75. [purchase here]
  • _, ‘Memoria gememoreerd’, Fantômas, 31 January 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Rand Abou Fakher over So We Live’, Fantômas, 16 January 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Apichatpong over waken en slapen’, Fantômas, 13 January 2022. [read and listen here]
  • _, ‘Mahamat-Saleh Haroun over Lingui’, Fantômas, 12 January 2022. [read here]
  • _, ‘Het vindersloon van een handtasheld’, Fantômas, 4 January 2022. [read here]

2021

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Frederick Wiseman, seismograaf van Amerikaanse structuren’, Apache, 18 November 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Uit de schaduwen’, Fantômas, 18 November 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Visite’, Fantômas, 10 November 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Courtisane’, Fantômas, 29 October 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Banden smeden op Courtisane’, Fantômas, 19 October 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Briefwisseling: Film Fest Gent I’, Fantômas, 17 October 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Vlinderen met bijen. Nina de Vroome over Globes’, Fantômas, 29 September 2021. [read here]
  • _, ‘Terugkijken naar Isaac Julien’, Apache, 13 August 2021. [read here]

2020

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Prisma #41 [High Flying Bird]’, Sabzian/Filmmagie, 4 March 2020. [read here]

2018

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘La fleurière. Interview met Ruben Desiere’, Sabzian, 4 April 2018. [read here]

2017

  • Bjorn Gabriels and Charlotte Timmermans, ‘Récits d’exploitants : De Studio’, trans. Grégory Cavinato, Cinérgie, 17 December 2017. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Ostend Film Festival: The movies to see, by the sea’, Flanders Today, 1 September 2017. [read here]
  • _, ‘Online platform helps second-hand books find new home’, Flanders Today, 18 August 2017. [read here]
  • _, ‘Antwerp’s M HKA reopens with new look and direction’, Flanders Today, 4 May 2017. [read here]
  • Gerard-Jan Claes, Bjorn Gabriels and Elias Grootaers, ‘Prisma #1’, Sabzian/Filmmagie, 24 March 2017. [read in Dutch, English or French]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Prisma #2’, Sabzian/Filmmagie, 24 March 2017. [read here]
  • Charlotte Timmermans and Bjorn Gabriels, ‘MONA, festival consacré au Moyen-Orient et à l’Afrique du Nord’, trans. Grégory Cavinato, 25 March 2017. [read here]
  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Rencontre avec les réalisateurs de Grands travaux, Gerard-Jan Claes et Olivia Rochette’, trans. Grégory Cavinato, Cinérgie, 15 February 2017. [read here]
  • _, ‘Le film documentaire en Flandre souffrirait-il de douleurs de croissance ?’, trans. Michel Perquy, Cinérgie, 15 January 2017. [read here]
  • _, ‘Grands travaux. Interview met Olivia Rochette en Gerard-Jan Claes’, Sabzian, 11 January 2017. [read in Dutch or English]
    This text was published as a booklet by Kunstenfestivaldesarts in May 2016, on the occassion of Grands travaux’s premiere at Beursschouwburg.

2016

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘The Magic Flute gets a modern twist from Flemish Opera’, Flanders Today, 7 December 2016. [read here]
  • _, ‘Flanders’ revolutionary poet, now available in English’, Flanders Today, 2 December 2016. [read here]
  • _, ‘On the same page: Flanders joint guest of honour at top book fair’, Flanders Today, 15 October 2016. [read here]
  • _, ‘Longing for Change. The Shifting Shapes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’, Sabzian, 1 June 2016. [read in English or Dutch]
  • _, ‘Stage adaptation explores the rationale of a mass murderer’, Flanders Today, 19 May 2016. [no longer available online]

2015

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Voorwoord bij “Als door een rivier. Reflecties bij een shot in Lav Diaz’ Heremias“‘, Sabzian, 23 September 2015. [read here]
  • _, ‘Voorwoord bij “Een fetisjistische camera. Over de films van Chantal Akerman”‘, Sabzian, 9 November 2015. [read in Dutch, English or French]
  • _, ‘Artists go in search of Utopia at Mechelen biennial’, Flanders Today, 9 September 2015. [read here]
  • _, ‘Wim Vandekeybus releases first feature film Galloping Mind’, Flanders Today, 4 September 2015. [read here]
  • _, ‘Ostend’s film festival puts Flemish movies in the spotlight’, Flanders Today, 2 September 2015. [read here]
  • _, ‘Poster boy Laurent Durieux relives the classics’, Flanders Today, 29 July 2015. [read here]
  • _, ‘Politiek van de halfopen deur. Filmmaken volgens Pedro Costa’, Streven 82:7 (July-August 2015), p. 646-651.
  • _, ‘New editions published by writer who brought rural Flanders to life’, Flanders Today, 26 June 2015 [no longer available online]
  • _, ‘New event mixes poetry with performance in festival setting’, Flanders Today, 19 March 2015. [read here]

2014

  • Bjorn Gabriels; ‘Vergeet de gids (niet)’, rekto:verso, 22 December 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Exhibition unveils creative process of animation film trailblazer’, Flanders Today, 16 December 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Leuven short film festival glances back during anniversary edition’, Flanders Today, 24 November 2014. [no longer available online]
  • _, ‘Masereel exhibition celebrates pioneer of the graphic novel’, Flanders Today, 20 November 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘The art and poetry of Marcel van Maele’, Flanders Today, 8 October 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Een kleine, illegale historie van China. De films van Wang Bing’, Streven 81:9 (October 2014), p. 833-838.
  • _, ‘Jean Schwind retrospective exposes art as swindle’, Flanders Today, 24 September 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Italian art brings saints to life’, Flanders Today, 22 September 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Ana Torfs travels through time and space in Wiels exhibition’, Flanders Today, 12 September 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Sergei Parajanov. Trans-Kaukasische poëet’, Sabzian, 9 July 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Een toekomst van enen en nullen’, rekto:verso, 2 May 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Helleense Alpen en diepe dalen. Hedendaagse Griekse auteurscinema’, Streven 81:5 (May 2014), p. 457-462.
  • _, ‘Interiors. Maeterlinck’s eerie tale of silence and death’, Flanders Today, 15 April 2014. [read here]
  • _, ‘Upstream Color. Experiment in samenleven’, Sabzian, 1 February 2014. [read here]

2013

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Dubbele inwijding in cult. Cult en cinefilie’, Cinemagie 282 (Spring 2013), p. 108-109.
  • _, ‘In and Out of Brussels. De blik op Afrika’, Cinemagie 282 (Spring 2013), p. 110-111.

2012

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Kat op de koord. Chris Marker (1921-2012)’, Cinemagie 281 (Winter 2012), p. 59-66.
  • _, ‘”Ik heb het paradijs gevonden in België”. Burr Jerger en de Brasschaatse Vietnamfilm General Massacre‘, Cinemagie 281 (Winter 2012), p. 67-87.
  • _, ‘The Return. Na de terugkeer de lotsbestemming’, Cinemagie 279 (Summer 2012), p. 16-22.
  • _, ‘Hugo. Een menselijke verhalenmachine’, Cinemagie 282 (Spring 2012), p. 8-18.
  • _, ‘Zin in film. Zoeken of zekerheid’, Cinemagie 282 (Spring 2012), p. 100-102.
  • _, ‘The boon of Boon. Flanders fetes one of its most famous writers during the centenary of his birth’, Flanders Today, 12 March 2012. [read here]
  • _, ‘Coming home. FeliXart reconstructs a historical exhibition of Belgian works from 1927 France’, Flanders Today, 29 February 2012. [no longer available online]

2011

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘The Artist. Interview met Michel Hazanavicius’, Cinemagie 277 (Winter 2011), p. 4-8.
  • _, ‘Het zevende wiel aan de wagen. Framing Pictures: Film and the Visual Arts (Steven Jacobs)’, Cinemagie 277 (Winter 2011), p. 108-111.
  • _, ‘Only Connect. Genieten van kunst zonder schuldgevoel’, Cinemagie 276 (Autumn 2011), p. 56-58.
  • _, ‘Coming Apart Together. Een blik op Amerikaanse zelfreflectieve cinema uit de late jaren zestig’, Cinemagie 276 (Autumn 2011), p. 76-87.
  • _, ‘Wraak: een langdurige kortsluiting. Over Burning Inside van Nathan Wrann’, Cinemagie 274 (Spring 2011), p. 60-66.

2010

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Ik is een ander. Identiteit, rocksterren en biopics’, Cinemagie 273 (Winter 2010), p. 34-48.
  • _, ‘Asta Nielsen. Kinoster en verlepte hoer (deel 2)’, Cinemagie 273 (Winter 2010), p. 88-95.
  • _, ‘Asta Nielsen. Kinoster en verlepte hoer’, Cinemagie 272 (Spring 2010), p. 92-104.

2009

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Beeld-textuur bij David Lynch. “One day, when it’s all sewed up, I’ll let you know all the details”‘, Cinemagie 268 (Spring 2009), p. 68-79.
  • _, ‘Romero’s pentagon. Media, maatschappij en zombies op missie’, Cinemagie 266 (Spring 2009), p. 70-84.

2008

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘(On-)bewogen beweger. Reflecties bij Seuls (1989) van Olivier Smolders’, Cinemagie 264 (Autumn 2008), p. 72-74.
  • _, Dehumanisering als symptoom en remedie. Il deserto rosso, Michelangelo Antonioni (1964)’, Cinemagie 262 (Spring 2008), p. 75-83.

2007

  • Bjorn Gabriels, ‘Women of the Night’, Cinemagie 259 (Summer 2007), p. 63-72.