-Who is Loick Peeters?

I’m a film director/screenwriter/producer/videographer/content creator from Belgium. I’m neurodivergent in the sense of having Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gilles de la Tourette (mentally, not vocally). I’m an author filmmaker; I have chosen my own voice which I dub “east meets west”: my own filmmaking style that is inspired by Japanese anime, manga and video games (east) as well as iconic western cinema (west).

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I was around 14-15 years old when I frequently watched two films: The American (directed by Anton Corbijn) and Tron Legacy (directed by Joseph Kosinski) which started to spark my interest in cinema, but it wasn’t until I saw In Bruges (directed by Martin Mcdonagh) that I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker namely a screenwriter. Years later I would decide to primarily become a film director as well.

-Tell us about your project “Pathos”.

After my first short film Ethos received mostly negative reviews, I was devastated by it and wanted to make a new short film as soon as possible. Around that time I became an intern at a local ambitious IT company AMOTEK Technologies founded by entrepreneur Filip Smet. We shared an interest in cinema and the idea for making a short film together was born. During my internship, I became fascinated by AI and thus Pathos was born.

Originally Pathos was going to be very different, namely a science fiction thriller short film about redemption, but eventually I realised the story felt flat and I took the advice I received of starting over with the script. I dived deep in my cinema loving soul, I realised I wanted to be a stand out and created my filmmaking style “east meets west” and thus the real Pathos was born: a story with the personal theme of healing and the modern most important subtheme of AI. Pathos is inspired by the masterpiece Nintendo DS game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (directed by my biggest artistic influence Tetsuya Nomura), the Japanese anime film Dragonball Super Broly, the legendary iconic masterpiece The Godfather (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) and finally The American (directed by Anton Corbijn).

-Which Director inspires you the most?

I have two directors who inspire me the most: from the east there is Tetsuya Nomura who is the creator of the Kingdom Hearts series of which I’m a huge fan and from the west there is Francis Ford Coppola who directed The Godfather trilogy. I always felt a special connection with the video game series of Kingdom Hearts which is much more than partially Disney to me, it’s so original, emotional and tragic with a beautiful soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimomura and as for The Godfather trilogy that needs no explanation of course.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

The toxicity and all the hate: people constantly backstabbing each other because they only care about themselves. I would want to change that and make people aware that in these dark times the last thing we should do is raise the sword against each other. We have to be there for each other in times of need, work together and we have to unite as we are supposed to be humanity.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

There will be four categories of cinema: the first three are what we have always known as arthouse, arthouse/mainstream mix and mainstream cinema, but the fourth one will be new: AI cinema which will be films entirely made by AI. Why you might ask? Because AI technology can’t be stopped and must co-exist with humanity, the arts and cinema.

Life is complexly gray: we need AI and AI needs us, we compliment each other, but true cinema (the first three categories) must always remain dominant!

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

WILD FILMMAKER is great and kind for giving filmmakers like me the chance to show their voice and let them be heard. For that I’m eternally grateful to WILD FILMMAKER.