THE FILMMAKER'S HOLIDAY
Documentary. 1974. 39'. Colour, Black & White. Dutch with French subtitles
In a small, depopulated village of the Aude province of France, an elderly couple confides to the "vacationer’s" camera their memories of the past: war, illness, death...
The film is put together as a collection of autonomous images which, once combined, make up van der Keuken's mental universe: family happiness, fragments of some of his earlier films, a homage to the saxophonist Ben Webster, two poems by the great contemporary poets Remco Campert and Lucebert, a portrait of the director's grandfather, who taught him photography at the age of twelve...
"One of those small masterpieces one encounters by surprise..." Jean-Paul Fargier, Cahiers du Cinéma, 1975
break 5 min
LAST WORDS - MY SISTER YOKA (1935-1997)
Documentary. 1998. 52'. Colour. Dutch with English subtitles
“My sister Yoka, 2,5 years my senior, died of cancer on 8 August 1997. Eight days before her death, my wife Noshka and I had a long conversation with her that I filmed with a digital video camera. Two days before she died, I recorded another, shorter, talk with her. I had asked Yoka with some trepidation if I could possibly film her, but the film turned out to be her last 'project'; one that was very important to her. Just before she died, in the presence of all of us, she asked me if I had been able to make all the recordings I needed.”
"The conversations are about the meaning of life, the pros and cons of metaphysics, vitality, passing on experiences and insight - that may have been the most important of all to her. And also about our relationship within the family, quarrels that were later resolved as we came together. I also filmed her house, her possessions, the wind in her garden. And her daughters (my nieces) and my eldest sister, photos from all periods, paintings that Yoka made.”
(Johan van der Keuken)
With the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beirut
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