Constructing a Flemish Cinema - Film Policy and National Identity in Flanders

Focuses on the history of government subsidies for feature films in Flanders (the northern, Dutch-language region of Belgium) and its role in stimulating a Flemish identity. It provides an empirical contribution to the study of the relationship between film, national identity and governmental film policy.

This book is a timely empirical contribution to the underdeveloped field of Belgian film history.

By focusing on film policy, the book contributes to the long neglected but currently burgeoning international field of film policy studies. Furthermore, because of its focus on film policy, the book provides an original contribution to the international research tradition on the relationship between film and national identity by going beyond an examination of textual representations.

About the author

Alexander De Man is a PhD fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) conducting research in a joint fellowship at the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS) at Ghent University, Belgium and at the the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi) at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research project, entitled “The diaspora kino-eye”, aims to critically investigate Flemish institutional
film policy frameworks and practices with regard to diaspora cinema and analyze its textual representations of diaspora identities, cultures, and spaces. He holds a master’s degree in Communication Sciences at Ghent University, Belgium, specializing in Film- and Television Studies (magna cum laude). Previously, he worked as an online editor at the international film festival of Ghent and assisted in the inter-university infrastructure Cinema Ecosystem (CINECOS) project.

Product details

• Authors: Alexander De Man, Alexander De (Ghent University and University of Antwerp Man, Gertjan Willems, Gertjan (University of Antwerp Willems, WILLEMS GERTJAN
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 04.09.2025
• EAN: 9781501368974
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-6897-4
• No. of pages: 240
• Illustrations: 32 bw illus
• Series: Topics and Issues in National Cinema; Topics and Issues in National
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Belgium, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / General, Flanders, Film: styles & genres, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production, Film Theory & Criticism, Film: styles and genres, Film history, theory or criticism