Ten huize van … is a Flemish talk show that first appeared on TV1 (Eén) in 1957.

Each episode, presenter Joos Florquin visited a Famous Fleming or Famous Dutchman and interviewed him in his own home. For three days he installed himself in the home of the person in question, while his camera crew shot footage. Most of the interviewees were from the political or cultural world. The first guest was Gerard Walschap. More than 250 followed. The interviews centered on the interviewees. They were able to talk freely and were only in the picture themselves. In other words, true oral history.

Over the decades, Florquin interviewed an impressive number of people. The interviews were written down afterwards, compiled and published in a series of books. When Florquin died in 1978, the program was also stopped for a long time.

Only in the 1990s did new episodes appear around “At the home of”, this time with Edward De Maesschalck as interviewer (34 episodes). From 2003 Frieda Van Wijck took over the presentation.

An overview of many of the interviewed:

Belga Sport is a Flemish documentary television series depicting turning points in Belgian sports history. The program, made by Woestijnvis and shown on the Flemish public broadcaster Canvas, digs up fragments from the VRT sports archives and sheds new light on “known” facts through testimonies. The subtitle therefore reads Old sports stories in a new light. The first series was broadcast in the spring of 2007. A new series was recently released in 2024. In June 2008, Belga Sport was awarded the Prize of Television Criticism. And in early 2011, the program received a nomination from the Flemish Television Stars in the category “Best Information Program.

There is also a podcast with the creators of Belga Sport. Which can be found here.

Belpop is a TV program about the Belgian pop scene on Canvas. It refers to belpop, a collective term for music by Belgian groups. Since 2008, each episode deals with one artist, sometimes several artists get the floor. They talk about the past of belpop. Between 2008 and 2020, Luc Janssen did the interviews and voice-over. As of 2023, Bent van Looy took over this task. Also see a review of this last season here.

Jan Delvaux, contributor to the program, also published a book in 2011 entitled Belpop: de eerste vijftig jaar, in which he describes the history of Belgian pop music, from Kili Watch of The Cousins to the present.

Also see the following video on belgian music history: Belpop Bonanza #1000 – Een duik in 40 jaar AB geschiedenis

The cultural heritage of design does not consist only of sketches, models, photographs or correspondence of designers. With design, there is also a strong interaction between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge, knowledge that may be passed on but which usually does not receive written expression. That is why the Flemish Architecture Institute conducted interviews with designers, policy makers and craftspeople. As a result, the interviews do not all cover the same topics and time periods. A mix of young and old and of profession was chosen; furniture maker, artist, design connoisseur and director of Design Flanders all have their say.

The following people were interviewed:

• Leonce Dekeijser (1924-2015), interior architect, he explains that in his college days, “interior design” did not actually exist. He took courses with architects and decorative arts and eventually earned a degree in furniture art. He discusses the teaching methods, the subjects and his teachers. He talks about the interaction between design and education

• José Vanderlinden (1920-?), furniture maker, the emphasis in the conversation with José Vanderlinden is, much more than in the conversation with Leonce Dekeijser, on the technical aspects of furniture making.

• Luc (1953-now) and Katrien Mestdagh (1980-now), stained glass artists, the conversation includes the neo-Gothic tradition in Ghent in terms of stained glass painting, and how it lives on to this day in atelier Mestdagh. They discuss the need for commissioning.
• Achiel Pauwels (1932-now), ceramist, he talks about how he learned the craft, how the teachers did not always give away the secrets of the craft just like that, and what the relationship was with the other art craft courses and the sculpture course. The conversation also explores the emphases he placed in his own classes and the importance he attached to drawing in doing so.
• Moniek Bucquoye (1948-2022), connoisseur and promoter of design, the talk provides an insight into how product development education was shaped in Flanders from a historical perspective. She highlights the difference between product development and industrial design.
• Lieven Daenens (1948-now), former director of the Design museum Ghent. Daenens discusses the evolution of the museum, its change of name and position with the advent of the museum decree in the 1990s. He discusses the quality of Belgian design culture and education in Belgium.
• Johan Valcke (1952-now), director of Design Flanders, the conversation with Valcke gives an insight into how art crafts and design were viewed in Belgium and Flanders from an economic point of view and a historical perspective.

The four interviewers were art historians and artists: Katarina Serulu, Marieke Pauwels, Eva Van Regenmortel and Aletta Rambaut

The 1956 Hungarian refugee flow illustrates how the international community can quickly resolve a humanitarian crisis. The first asylum countries did not bear the brunt of their humanitarian response to the massive request for protection from the many Hungarians.

The 1956 Hungarian flow of refugees illustrates how the international community can quickly resolve a humanitarian crisis. The first asylum countries did not bear the brunt of their humanitarian response to the massive request for protection from the many Hungarians.
The 1956 refugee crisis also shows how broad support for refugee protection can facilitate inclusion.

Students from the Vakgroep Nieuwste Tijden at Ghent University conducted oral history interviews with 16 Hungarian refugees who came to Belgium in 1956.

In addition to the full transcripts, 10-minute summaries are available.

What made someone a liberal humanist? Why did someone commit to a particular cause? What form did the commitment take? And how did family, social, professional and regional backgrounds play a significance in the life of the liberal humanist? As part of the project ‘A Liberal Humanist Cultural Heritage Forum for Flanders’, CAVA approached numerous committed liberal humanists with these questions. Because witnesses are also forgetting and/or disappearing. Moreover, there is a glaring lack of sources on this chapter in the history of Flanders and Brussels. These memories and stories therefore provide a wealth of information not readily available in written sources. They constitute important testimonies about the breakthrough of liberal humanist thought in Flanders and Brussels and are part of the oral heritage of liberal humanism.

CAVA therefore organised several storytelling evenings, during which a panel of liberal humanists from the region reminisced. The audience did not leave out either. An audio recording was made of each talk. At the bottom of this page you will find an overview of the various storytelling evenings.

Moreover, the stories and testimonies of the story evenings were supplemented by interviews of liberal figures.

The liberal storytelling evenings took place with the support of the Flemish Government, deMens.nu, Uitstraling Permanente Vorming (VUB) and the Humanistisch Vrijzinnige Vereniging.

• Ronse: Een avond vol vrij zinnige verhalen (Tuesday 25 June 2013)
• Hasselt: Jong en vrijzinnig (Sunday 15 September 2013))
• Vilvoorde: Een avond vol vrij zinnige verhalen (Thursday 24 October 2013)
• Antwerpen: Vrijzinnigheid en onderwijs (Tuesday, 26 November 2013)
• Brugge: Een avond vol vrij zinnige verhalen (Wednesday 19 February 2014)
• Tienen: Een avond vol vrij zinnige verhalen (Monday 24 March 2014))
• Kortrijk: Vrijzinnigheid over de generaties heen (Tuesday 25 March 2014)
• Mechelen: Een avond vol vrij zinnige verhalen (Thursday 3 April 2014)
• Elsene: Studentikoos en vrijzinnig (Thursday 8 May 2014)
• Aalst: Getuigenissen over vrijzinnig humanisme (Saturday 10 May 2014)

Following Heritage Day 2017, which was dedicated to “Care”, several interviews were conducted with volunteers and pioneers of liberal-humanist care. A number of excerpts were selected from each interview, which together form the audio bar ‘Pioneers of liberal-humanist care’. As the full interviews contain a wealth of information, we don’t want to withhold them from you. Via the links below, you can listen to or read the interviews and learn more about the pioneers of liberal-humanist care and the course they took.

• Interview with Els Goderis (10 november 2016)
• Interview with Conny Verkest (17 november 2016)
• Interview with Tania Ramoudt (14 december 2016)
• Interview with Jan Verlinden (15 december 2016)

Liberal humanism has always been able to count on champions. Sometimes these were personalities who fought from the proverbial barricades, and who were known by the general public. But often they were men and women behind the scenes, who from their commitment and conviction as humanists, created and helped shape the liberal associations, the non-confessional ethics course or the liberal ceremonies.

As part of the project A liberal-humanist cultural heritage forum for Flanders (2012-2015), CAVA went in search of these people and their stories and testimonies. Some of them came to the fore through the storytelling evenings. But others were active in several fields and deserve an in-depth interview. These interviews can be seen

via www.cavavub.be.

• Interview with Karel Poma (10 July 2014)
• Interview with Hugo Dufour (28 January 2015)
• Interview with Luc Devuyst (28 April 2015)
• Interview with Sonja Eggerickx (19 January 2015)

Xavier Taveirne talks to the first generations of men who dared to come out as gay in Flanders. It is a moving and often disconcerting series with stories of love, struggle and pain, and the taboo of being gay in less tolerant times.

In three episodes, older gay men tell their stories uncensored. Important stories and often conversations in which they do not shy away from thorny current issues.

Three-part documentary “Voor de mannen”

Episode 1: 1940-1970
The first episode features gay men growing up in post-war Catholic Flanders. Sex was taboo for everyone, and if homosexuality was mentioned at all, people talked about ‘jeanets’. The church was also very repressive.

Xavier sought out Paul Rademaekers, now 98, who still gets angry when he thinks back to those times: “I have always said: homosexuality is not a sexual problem, but a social problem. I started with difficult cards. But even with difficult cards, you have to try to make as many assets as possible. My assets were that I always stood up for others, especially gay people.”

The first turning point came only in 1970, when Will Ferdy became the first well-known Fleming to speak on television about his “being different”. It was a shock for Flanders. Will received many negative reactions, but his courageous testimony did mark the very beginning of gay emancipation.

Episode 2: 1970-1980
The wild 1970s were also the years of sexual liberation and social change for the gay community.

Although gays – especially in rural areas – still often continued to lead a hidden life, thriving subcultures emerged in the cities with gay bars and nightclubs where anything was possible. A debauched life that everyone today thinks back to with nostalgia.

Xavier also talks to Chille De Man and Guido Totté. Guido first took to the streets with the Trotskyist Rooie Vlinder to enforce equal rights for gays and straights. An early precursor to Pride, which Chille later organised for the first time in Brussels.

Episode 3: 1980-1995
For the gay community, the 1980s were overshadowed by the rise of a new, deadly disease: AIDS.

In this episode, gay men recount the havoc wreaked by the AIDS virus. It took years before the first medication was available, and in that time many gay men became infected. Only a few of them are still alive today. One of them is Patrick Reyntiens. Xavier talks to him about those black years, when all gay people were once again fingered. “AIDS was God’s punishment for the homosexuals’ rampant behaviour”, and AIDS patients were the new plague sufferers.

Xavier also talks to Rob Scheers, who was active in the first prevention campaigns, yet later became infected himself through risky behaviour.

In 1982, the then BRT (now VRT) broadcast Maurice De Wilde’s legendary documentary series De Nieuwe Orde. About collaboration with the German occupiers during World War II.

This was followed by other series: about the resistance, the Eastern Front, punishment… For these documentaries, Maurice De Wilde and his collaborators interviewed more than 300 people. Among them well-known collaborators such as Jef Vande Wiele, leader of DeVlag, and Rex leader Léon Degrelle. People from the resistance, ministers, lawyers and professors were also interviewed by Maurice De Wilde in his characteristic style.

Documentaries by Maurice De Wilde
The New Order – 19 episodes
The Suspects – 4 episodes
The Time of Retaliation – 8 episodes
The Eastern Frontiers – 7 episodes
The Repression – 5 episodes
The Collaboration – 10 episodes
The Youth Collaboration – 4 episodes
 

DOCUMENTARIES