Logline : Portrait of an urban marsh born from a human flaw, where life invents new forms of coexistence.
Synopsis: Filmed in 16 mm at the Wiels Marsh in Brussels. A marsh that emerged after the water table was pierced during excavation work for a real estate project. Insects, birds, and humans coexist in this refuge, where life and magic resist.
Long : The Wiels Marsh emerged when excavation work for a real estate project pierced the water table, before being halted by the 2008 financial crisis. This accident allowed for the emergence of an ecosystem in the heart of the ruins of industrial capitalism. Insects, birds, and humans coexist in this refuge where life and magic resist.
Sophie Sherman is a French and Belgium artist and filmmaker born in 1980, currently based in Brussels, Belgium. She studied fine arts at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille and film at Aix-Marseille University, before furthering her artistic practice at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. In recent years, she has mainly explored the medium of 16 mm through a documentary, experimental, and poetic approach, with films such as The walk (2015, 19′), The water was here (2025, 15′, co-directed with Némo Camus), and Hold my hand (2025, 17′). Her films have been screened at the Torino Film Festival (IT), L’Alternativa (ES), the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (GR), Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (UK), Wiels Art Center in Brussels (BE), Ontsteking Art space in Ghent (BE), among others.
Némo Camus, Biography : Némo Camus is a French artist born in 1994, who lives and works in Brussels. After a degree in film theory and a Master’s in sociology, he turned to sound creation and trained at INSAS. His work, strongly rooted in the practice of sound recording, investigates the back-and-forth between fieldwork and speculative approach, focusing on notions of trace, clue and tremor. He is specifically interested in the entanglement and gaps between intimate narrative and historical document in the context of contemporary memorial issues. His work takes the form of radio creations, sound installations, performances, texts and films. For performance and visual arts, he collaborates with Pélagie Gbaguidi, On-Trade-Off, Joëlle Sambi, Esther Mugambi, Robson Ledesma, Aïssatou Ciss, Sophie Sherman and Davide Tidoni. His work has recently been presented at GMEM in Marseille, iMAL in Brussels, Framer Framed in Amsterdam, the Biennale de Dakar and the Bienal Internacional de Dança do Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil. He teaches sound creation workshops at the Université Paris 8.
Directed by Sophie Sherman and Némo Camus.
“the water was here” is a film shot on 16mm at the Wiels Marsh in Brussels. This site emerged when excavation work for a real estate project pierced the water table, before being halted by the 2008 financial crisis. This accident allowed for the emergence of an ecosystem in the heart of the ruins of industrial capitalism. Insects, birds, and humans coexist in this refuge where life and magic resist.
We made this film during a short residency, what interested us was making a film that explored the relationship between sound and image through collaboration. While Némo Camus comes from a sound background, I have spent recent years exploring the medium of 16mm film. For me, it was essential to shoot this film with my hand-cranked Bolex. The camera doesn’t record sound, and we found this restriction inspiring. This project continues my ongoing interest in “marginal” spaces, those places existing between urban ruins and rewilding, a theme I previously explored in my short film, The Walk (2015). We began the residency by hosting a three-day open sound recording and writing workshop for the neighbors or people interested in the marsh, followed later by a one-day 16mm film workshop specifically for children in collaboration with a local association.
Following the workshop, we chose to record with one of the participants a speculative voiceover for the film.
We were captivated by the intricate layers of the Wiels Marsh. What was intended to be a construction site for 200 offices accidentally became a thriving ecosystem when workers pierced the water table. Today, construction pillars remain as traces of an unfinished building, while another structure rests on submerged foundations, completely overtaken by vegetation. It is a hybrid place, caught between nature and construction, showing concretely what happens on the ruins of capitalism.
There is a utopian aspect to this spontaneous marsh; it has become a living laboratory. We wanted to show all the layers it contains:
The activists known as Les Fé.e.s du Marais (the Fairies of the Marsh) play a key role in preserving the space against ongoing plans to construct flats.
We found their rituals of forming alliances with other marshes, like Lago Bullicante in Rome, deeply poetic. There was not just one but an archipelago of wetlands around the world that needed to be defended. These places resonate with vital connections between territories, struggles, and communities.
We also felt it was important to give a voice to the people who call this site home, which is why we conducted several sound interviews. And kept the one with Mélissa in the film.
Finally, we were interested in the site’s educational dimension, incorporating guided tours, artistic activities to explore aquatic insects, and the work of the educator who collaborates with local schools and youth centers to help young people discover the world of bees and their vital role in nature.
