On July 1, The Wonder Within, the short documentary I made together with the Isala research team, was presented to the Isala community, colleagues, family members, friends, and the general public during a screening at the University of Antwerp’s city campus. No fewer than 394 people registered to attend, and despite the heatwave, the vast majority actually showed up!
As a documentary filmmaker, a public screening of your own work always comes with a small rollercoaster of emotions: will everything go smoothly from a technical point of view? How will the audience react during the screening? And what difficult questions or reflections might I have to respond to afterward?
A film is always the result of teamwork and the people at Isala certainly know what teamwork means, as became clear to me during the production process of The Wonder Within. Thanks to the Isala team’s excellent organization, the film screenings, Q&As, and presentations of ongoing research on July 1 blended seamlessly into one another. My nerves quickly gave way to pride at being part of such a wonderful and intelligent group of scientists. The evening program turned out to be a truly connecting moment, an opportunity to talk with people (from professionals to patients) about the importance of research into our female bodies.
In the meantime, the film has also been screened at Cinema Z in Leuven, Cinema Urbana in Antwerp, and in Aalst during an event on women’s health (in collaboration with Behind Endo Stories vzw). The responses have been heartwarming, and the film continues to travel! Anyone interested in organizing a screening for colleagues, policymakers, researchers, etc. (whether or not combined with a lecture or panel discussion) can contact Dalton Distribution.
Trailer:
Check out the trailer here. The documentary is now also available on VRT max!
Who am I?
My name is Nina Landau. I am a Belgian documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist. After completing my studies in Criminology and International Politics, I took my first steps in the media world in 2012 as a journalist at VRT (the Flemish public broadcaster). In the years that followed, I directed and produced (news) reports for television, NGOs, companies, and government institutions. Since 2017, I have been working as a creative producer at Associate Directors, where I have helped guide numerous domestic and international documentary (co-)productions. Associate Directors is known for documentaries such as 9999 (about psychiatric internment), Cold Case Hammarskjöld (about the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld), and Addicted to Life (about the final years of Paralympian Marieke Vervoort).
I have also made three short documentaries of my own: Lon (2017) and Circus Zonder Tent (2020). Both were broadcast on VRT and enjoyed successful national and international film festival runs (IDFA, DOK Leipzig, DOC NYC, Cinekid, Docville, and others). The Wonder Within, the short documentary about the Isala research project, premiered at Docville in March 2025. I am currently developing two new documentary projects: The Floor is Yours, a film about the female pelvis, and De Broze Wolk (The Fragile Cloud), a documentary about postnatal depression.