Campfire

Bavo Defurne is a European Filmmaker mostly known for his prize winning short film work. He was born in Ghent on 8 June 1971. Bavo Defurne grew up in a village close to Oostende, Belgium. Bavo studied film and video at St. Lukas Art School in Brussels.

Before he focussed his career on directing, Defurne worked as assistant director on experimental filmmaker Matthias Müller’s shorts Alpsee (1995) and Pensão Globo (1997). Bavo was a set decorator on many films, like Peter Greenaway’s The Baby of Mâcon (1993) and Vincent Bal’s De man van Staal (1999).

His first short video, Atlantis, already demonstrated Defurne’s themes – the body and the power of nature and silence.

His film work includes Particularly now, In Spring, Saint, Matroos and Campfire.

Besides directing, he now teaches Film and Video Art at the Art Academy in Oostende and works as a photographer.

“Watching the short films of Belgian film director Bavo Defurne, four of which have recently been released on DVD under the title Campfire (Strand Video), can be both an aesthetically pleasing and an emotionally bittersweet experience. Defurne, 31, perfectly evokes the aching adolescent longings of gay teenagers while setting them within experimental visual settings—some reminiscent of Pierre et Gilles, others of Carl Theodor Dreyer.” (Mike Goodridge, The Advocate, February 18, 2003). —Wikipedia