Christine Vandemoortele was born in Belgium and studied at the 'Ecole Supérieure d'Architecture et d'Arts Visuels' in Brussels. Having trained as a visual artist, she has gone on to script, produce and direct her own short films in London.
She exhibited installation works in group and solo shows throughout Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and began experimenting with sound in 1988, producing a series of audio installations which sparked her passion for the human voice.
This interest in voice and sound forms the backbone of Vandemoortele's films. It's paired with her exploration of human emotion, set in landscapes which have a resonance for each theme. Her scripts often draw from interviews on themes as diverse as chance meetings, loss or renewal. Carefully cast voices tackle rituals before going to bed (Preparing for Bed, 1998), emotional clichés (The Omega Centauri Project, 2005-2010), the need for sleep, set in a primordial cave (Everybody is Quiet, 2017) as well as a sense of loss in vast Argentinian landscapes (A Powerful Presence, 2015-2018) and an emotionally resonant interview in a canyon (Embrace, 2022).
Vandemoortele’s work invites quiet contemplation. She avoids any depiction of human bodies in her films as she wants the audience to rely on the voices and soundscape to structure their experience.
She exhibited installation works in group and solo shows throughout Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and began experimenting with sound in 1988, producing a series of audio installations which sparked her passion for the human voice.
This interest in voice and sound forms the backbone of Vandemoortele's films. It's paired with her exploration of human emotion, set in landscapes which have a resonance for each theme. Her scripts often draw from interviews on themes as diverse as chance meetings, loss or renewal. Carefully cast voices tackle rituals before going to bed (Preparing for Bed, 1998), emotional clichés (The Omega Centauri Project, 2005-2010), the need for sleep, set in a primordial cave (Everybody is Quiet, 2017) as well as a sense of loss in vast Argentinian landscapes (A Powerful Presence, 2015-2018) and an emotionally resonant interview in a canyon (Embrace, 2022).
Vandemoortele’s work invites quiet contemplation. She avoids any depiction of human bodies in her films as she wants the audience to rely on the voices and soundscape to structure their experience.