What's on this week: 24-30 March

In nine years, the Millenium Film Festival has established itself as THE documentary film festival, showcasing the year’s most eye-opening, socially engaged documentaries. Screenings are hosted at five venues, including festival hub Cinéma Galeries. Prizes are awarded in international, youth and worker’s categories. There’s also a new Belgian film prize. In keeping with the festival’s participatory ethos, the competition is refereed by an audience jury of film buffs and activists in addition to the professional jury. This edition opens with South Korean director Hyewon Jee’s crowdpleaser Singing with Angry Bird, the story of a former opera singer who puts together a children’s choir, earning the nickname in the title for his less-than-patient temperament. The festival shows "films that make us see the world differently, refusing to shy away from its problems but, most of all, showing us its beauty and complexity". From The Road Movie which shows us that "everything can happen on a Russian road" to America Recycled in which the Hussin Brothers bicycle through the American south "seeking out creative and innovative means of reclaiming local culture and rebuilding local economy", the festival shows us the world in its amazing variety.
24 March-2 April, across Brussels

Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s whirlwind film, was as pioneering for its brilliant cinematography – seemingly shot in a single, uninterrupted take – as its trailblazing score, a continuous series of solo drums that paced, tickled and propelled the movie forward. It was written and performed by the Mexican jazz drummer and composer Antonio Sanchez. The four-time Grammy Award winner is touring the US and Europe with a performance that takes the delectable Birdman experience one step further by way of a “cineconcert” in which Sanchez plays the score onstage while the 2015 Best Picture winner unfolds onscreen.
27-28 March 20.30, Bozar, Brussels

The Pursuit of Love is a charity concert in aid of Chain of Hope Belgium, by the International Chorale of Brussels, featuring a programme of madrigals performed with baroque ensemble El Capricho del Duende and recorder ensemble Il flauti dolci.
24 March 20.00, St Anne’s church, Auderghem; 26 March 15.30, St. Jan’s church, Tervuren

The biennial Passa Porta Festival returns to Brussels with an eclectic mix of local and international writers and a host of literary activities. Friday’s opening night is with three writers – the Turkish Ece Temelkuran, the Franco-Iranian Négar Djavadi and the Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez – who take the stage to discuss literature and politics. The weekend includes activities for children, including writing and storytelling workshops. More mature audiences can sign up for a guided tour of Brussels’ literary scene, organised by the city guide Jan Dorpmans, in English, Dutch or French. Read more about the festival here…
24-26 March, across Brussels

Brussels filmmaker Fabrizio Terranova talks with the American philosopher, activist and science-fiction enthusiast Donna Haraway following a screening of his film about her, then she reads from her work the following night. (In English)
30-31 March, Bozar, Brussels

On the square in front of Our Lady of Laeken it's the 11th Laeken Soup Festival. It's a competition and tasters will be furnished with a bowl and a ballot. To keep you entertained while you eat and vote, there will be music, artists and magicians.
26 March, 12.00-17.00, Parvis Notre Dame, Laeken

XS is a shorts festival with a difference. These are not short films but rather short live performances - theatre, dance, circus and puppets. There are 22 performances, each from five to 25 minutes long, 11 of which are premiers, over three days at the Théatre National. But, if purchasing tickets and showing up at the theatre is too much for you, three of the 22 performances will take place for free on the Place de la Bourse on Saturday starting at 19.00. The three free spectacles will include a dance piece, a high wire act and a magic act.
23-25 March, Théâtre National, Brussels

Would you like to grow your own vegetables and fruit - even if you only have the smallest of balconies? Brussels Environment would like to see home growing provide a larger part of Brussels' food and is offering free workshops on pesticide-free cultivation, planting a meter-square garden, apiculture, balcony gardens and related topics. The workshops are offered more than once and in different locations in 14 of the 19 boroughs of Brussels.

Co.Station Brussels, located near Gare Centrale, hosts Techies Lab, a series of technology workshops for children and their parents. The aim is to bridge the technological gap between generations by teaching new skills together.
25 March, 14.00-18.00, Co.Station, Brussels