Johan van der Keuken

Trying to describe oneself is a movie about representation. How it is possible, through film, to describe oneself and describe others. With the camera as mirror and third eye. At first, a collage-like combination of letter-writing, investigation and journey, something between documentary and feature film. Finally, a portrait of Boris Lehman from 1989 to 1995, part II of BABEL.

Following in the footsteps of his uncle, this film documents the last days of Johan van der Keuken.

The opening segment for a planned larger documentary by Johan van der Keuken. Unfortunately, this is all that was completed before his death. These are small portraits of people he met during his travels.

During the shooting of this film, four long interviews were recorded by Thierry Nouel, marking out the different stages of the life and work of the Dutch director. Johan van der Keuken analyzes the relationships between art and reality, morality and the political, gives his conception of exchanges and conflicts between interiority and the outside world. He explains with precision this research which goes at all to the intimate, and which did not progress without rejections and moments of doubt. Shortly before his death, he had reviewed this document and wanted it to be shown as such, in its unedited state.

After the famous Dutch documentary filmmaker Johan van der Keuken is told that he has prostate cancer and only a few years left to live he decides to take an extended vacation while filming his journeys so the afterworld can learn about his experiences. He travels to Kathmandu where he meets buddhist monks and a healer woman who soon is trying to medicate him, to Burkina Faso and Mali onto the edge of the Sahara desert and other places. Everywhere he is collecting experiences that help make the rest of his life bearable.

This film is a playful and experimental film object. The images of several films by Johan van der Keuken are mounted in a rhythmic and circular way to emphasize the repetition and similarity of the gestures they give to see: the daily gestures of men and women at work, throughout the world.

This film is a playful and experimental film object. The images of several films by Johan van der Keuken are mounted in a rhythmic and circular way to emphasize the repetition and similarity of the gestures they give to see: the daily gestures of men and women at work, throughout the world.

Last Words: My Sister Yoka (1998) is the director's tribute to his sister, who speaks to the camera just days before she dies of cancer.

Last Words: My Sister Yoka (1998) is the director's tribute to his sister, who speaks to the camera just days before she dies of cancer.

In the person of To Sang, a Chinese-born photographer living and working in Amsterdam, JVDK has found his perfect counterpart and alter ego. To Sang's monumental, stagey portrait photos reach back toward painting, just as JVDK's carefully composed film images recall still photography. Like JDVK, To Sang works in close collaboration with his wife. As image-makers, both men gently but firmly impose their way of seeing on the world. "Although we laugh at first, in the end he is master of the situation," says JVDK about To Sang in Gieling's film.

In the person of To Sang, a Chinese-born photographer living and working in Amsterdam, JVDK has found his perfect counterpart and alter ego. To Sang's monumental, stagey portrait photos reach back toward painting, just as JVDK's carefully composed film images recall still photography. Like JDVK, To Sang works in close collaboration with his wife. As image-makers, both men gently but firmly impose their way of seeing on the world. "Although we laugh at first, in the end he is master of the situation," says JVDK about To Sang in Gieling's film.

In the person of To Sang, a Chinese-born photographer living and working in Amsterdam, JVDK has found his perfect counterpart and alter ego. To Sang's monumental, stagey portrait photos reach back toward painting, just as JVDK's carefully composed film images recall still photography. Like JDVK, To Sang works in close collaboration with his wife. As image-makers, both men gently but firmly impose their way of seeing on the world. "Although we laugh at first, in the end he is master of the situation," says JVDK about To Sang in Gieling's film.

Johan van der Keuken: 'We kept the ends of a lot of shots in Amsterdam Global Village: the camera leaves the subject and pans to the sound woman, who quickly taps the microphone. These taps later in the cutting become the references for synchronising picture and sound. This film is the rhythmic sequence of these taps, in which something of a story can be seen.

"I am far away on a distant journey through my own city", filmmaker Johan van der Keuken says at the end of his four-hour portrait of Amsterdam. The city is presented as a place where people from all corners of the world live, who all exert their cultural influence on the life in the city. With a motor courier as his central figure, the filmmaker introduces the audience to birds of different feathers. We see diverse cultural expressions, like the house scene, the entry of St. Nicholas and a Ghanese mourning ritual. The binding factor in the film is the concept of 'travelling', in other words Amsterdam as a global village. The camera travels through the film in three ways: over land, over water (canals) and through the air.

"I am far away on a distant journey through my own city", filmmaker Johan van der Keuken says at the end of his four-hour portrait of Amsterdam. The city is presented as a place where people from all corners of the world live, who all exert their cultural influence on the life in the city. With a motor courier as his central figure, the filmmaker introduces the audience to birds of different feathers. We see diverse cultural expressions, like the house scene, the entry of St. Nicholas and a Ghanese mourning ritual. The binding factor in the film is the concept of 'travelling', in other words Amsterdam as a global village. The camera travels through the film in three ways: over land, over water (canals) and through the air.

"I am far away on a distant journey through my own city", filmmaker Johan van der Keuken says at the end of his four-hour portrait of Amsterdam. The city is presented as a place where people from all corners of the world live, who all exert their cultural influence on the life in the city. With a motor courier as his central figure, the filmmaker introduces the audience to birds of different feathers. We see diverse cultural expressions, like the house scene, the entry of St. Nicholas and a Ghanese mourning ritual. The binding factor in the film is the concept of 'travelling', in other words Amsterdam as a global village. The camera travels through the film in three ways: over land, over water (canals) and through the air.

"I am far away on a distant journey through my own city", filmmaker Johan van der Keuken says at the end of his four-hour portrait of Amsterdam. The city is presented as a place where people from all corners of the world live, who all exert their cultural influence on the life in the city. With a motor courier as his central figure, the filmmaker introduces the audience to birds of different feathers. We see diverse cultural expressions, like the house scene, the entry of St. Nicholas and a Ghanese mourning ritual. The binding factor in the film is the concept of 'travelling', in other words Amsterdam as a global village. The camera travels through the film in three ways: over land, over water (canals) and through the air.

Three-part film about the Dutch painter and poet Lucebert who died in 1994. Director Johan van der Keuken made three short films about his friend and inspiration Lucebert. The black-and-white film Lucebert, dichter-schilder was shot in 1962 on a very low budget. In 1967 Een film voor Lucebert was released. Unlike Van der Keuken's first film about Lucebert, this one had a political message. It is a film for an artist about the world. Lucebert died in May 1994. A reaction to his death is contained in Als je weet waar ik ben zoek me dan. In this film, shot in Lucebert's studio, the presence of the artist is evoked once more through his absence. In Lucebert, Time and Farewell, Van der Keuken puts the three films together into a new entity that exploits the tension between changing and standing still over a period of 32 years.

A spew of images swarm the screen; appearing before no answers-man and his machinery, denuded wholly of its grace and beauty.

Short documentary about the Sarajevo Film Festival. Sarajevo in the twentieth month of its besiegement. The situation is critical but the city chooses to organise an international film festival. Dutch filmmakers Johan van der Keuken and Frank Vellenga present Van der Keuken's documentaries Face Value and Brass Unbound there and one of the festival organisers asks a festival visitor: `What is the significance of film in war? In Sarajevo Film Festival Film, a reflection on film, war and daily life, fictional images are juxtaposed in a disconcerting way with the gruesome reality of the lives of the festival visitors. (netherlands film commission)

Documentary shows brass bands from Nepal, Surinam, Indonesia and Ghana.

Documentary shows brass bands from Nepal, Surinam, Indonesia and Ghana.

Documentary shows brass bands from Nepal, Surinam, Indonesia and Ghana.

Documentary shows brass bands from Nepal, Surinam, Indonesia and Ghana.

Face Value is a film combining a conscious approach with spontaneity, and contemplation with action. It presents us with the differing views of a region we call “Europe”, an imaginary Europe situated somewhere between London, Marseilles, Prague and the Netherlands.

During the celebrations of the bicentenary of the French Revolution, Johan van der Keuken made a film about the revolutionary ideals of equality, liberty and fraternity. Rather than lingering on the festivities, he lingers on the crowds in the metro and on the platform. Amongst them is Philippe, a 23 year old, homeless and with no real job. More than just a comment on the ignorance and contradictions of France at the end of the 1980s, THE MASK is an exchange of views on solitude. Isn’t the question of violence in our democracies firstly that of the real price society pays for the image it would like to show?

A poetic depiction of life and ritual in the south Indian state of Kerala. We see how knowledge is passed down from generation to generation: within the family, through the village economy, and especially from teachers to students. Performance footage shows how song, dance, martial arts, and religion constitute the building blocks of a culture.

A poetic depiction of life and ritual in the south Indian state of Kerala. We see how knowledge is passed down from generation to generation: within the family, through the village economy, and especially from teachers to students. Performance footage shows how song, dance, martial arts, and religion constitute the building blocks of a culture.

A poetic depiction of life and ritual in the south Indian state of Kerala. We see how knowledge is passed down from generation to generation: within the family, through the village economy, and especially from teachers to students. Performance footage shows how song, dance, martial arts, and religion constitute the building blocks of a culture.

The film consists of two basic components: the music of Charles Ives, 'The unanswered question', from 1907, and a letter written by an old woman who has lost her memory. Between these two elements, which are often repeated, a story like an abyss is built, in which information is progressively reduced. The words become music, the music becomes a rustle, the rustle turns into silence.

In 1984–85, Johan van der Keuken took his camera across the globe, from Amsterdam to New York to Hong Kong, ending in Geneva. The object of his investigation was money, in particular the maniacal drive to accumulate it in the era of Thatcherite/Reaganite neoliberalism.

In 1984–85, Johan van der Keuken took his camera across the globe, from Amsterdam to New York to Hong Kong, ending in Geneva. The object of his investigation was money, in particular the maniacal drive to accumulate it in the era of Thatcherite/Reaganite neoliberalism.

In 1984–85, Johan van der Keuken took his camera across the globe, from Amsterdam to New York to Hong Kong, ending in Geneva. The object of his investigation was money, in particular the maniacal drive to accumulate it in the era of Thatcherite/Reaganite neoliberalism.

In 1984–85, Johan van der Keuken took his camera across the globe, from Amsterdam to New York to Hong Kong, ending in Geneva. The object of his investigation was money, in particular the maniacal drive to accumulate it in the era of Thatcherite/Reaganite neoliberalism.

The point of departure for this film is the 1981 composition De Tijd by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Van der Keuken leaves the music undisturbed as an autonomous soundtrack and has the images engage in a sort of battle with it. These images are associations, fragments of events, scenes and situations. The film is preceded by a text by Bert Schierbeek.

The point of departure for this film is the 1981 composition De Tijd by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Van der Keuken leaves the music undisturbed as an autonomous soundtrack and has the images engage in a sort of battle with it. These images are associations, fragments of events, scenes and situations. The film is preceded by a text by Bert Schierbeek.

Johan van der Keuken's film was made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of De Melkweg (The Milky Way). De Melkweg is a multimedia venue in Amsterdam, which was established in the spirit of the ’60s, and became an international centre of counter-culture.

Johan van der Keuken went against the grain in 1980: from Amsterdam (on April 30 with the coronation riots and squatting actions) via Paris, southern France and Italy to Egypt. He made his personal travelogue in three parts for VPRO television. Later, he fused the three parts into one long movie.

Johan van der Keuken went against the grain in 1980: from Amsterdam (on April 30 with the coronation riots and squatting actions) via Paris, southern France and Italy to Egypt. He made his personal travelogue in three parts for VPRO television. Later, he fused the three parts into one long movie.

A musical comedy. One God creates the world, the other destroys the creation and hopes to make a better job of it.

Documentary about the Wadden Sea in which Van der Keuken looks at this ribbon in the landscape through the eyes of a city-dweller. A film about the relationship between the minuscule and the overwhelming in this flat jungle.

Five portraits from the mid-seventies. The nouveau riches and the nouveau pauvres take their places. With Joop Uchtman, Claude Menard, Ome Joop Beaux, Doris Schwert en Jan van Haagen.

Shot in Lebanon in 1975 just before the civil war. Starting from the economically opportunistic backing of the Zionist project, the director delivers a nuanced account of the complexities surrounding the ‘Palestinian issue’, touching most vitally on the global interests and fluxes of oil, in whose name one people is displaced and persecuted while another is hypocritically ‘defended’.

De Nieuwe IJstijd is the third part of the triptych Noord-Zuid (North-South), in which the director focuses on the relationships between rich and poor countries. The film draws a parallel between the living conditions of impoverished Peruvians in a suburb of Lima and a number of young workers at an ice cream factory in the Dutch province of Groningen. (http://doclisboa.org/2014/en/filmes/de-nieuwe-ijstijd/)

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

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

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

Part of Johan van der Keuken's North/South series, The White Castle focuses on the impact of the West on the underclass: on the concrete realities of their daily life and on the way their existence is isolated and frustrated. Interweaving images of the Spanish tourist mecca of Formentera, a community center in Columbus, Ohio, and factories in the Netherlands, the film vividly illustrates the fragmented, alienated lives that the market economy produces and chillingly portrays what van der Keuken saw as "a conveyor belt [that] runs across the world."

A "revolutionary theater" troupe from North Vietnam performs in Amsterdam.

Van der Keuken juxtaposes images of Dutch children learning to read against those of the coup d'état in Chile.

A short portrait of poet Bert Schierbeek, who reads from his poetry.

A short portrait of poet Bert Schierbeek, who reads from his poetry.

The tools people adopt to try and control nature. In parallel with the early history of Van der Keuken's child.

Beauty deals with a young man's quest for reality. He tries to understand a world he cannot grasp, to capture the things that escape him. (The Low Countries. Jaargang 6)

Johan van der Keuken explains, "Some fifteen filmmakers were asked to make a film series in a relay style for a very popular variety program on Dutch television: each new program was to start from the last image of the previous program, developing the story from that image. It was necessary to work according to codes of the crime thriller. I 'sabotaged' these codes, following a close-up of a pistol, inherited from my predecessor, by a series of comic observations of my cat, accompanied by a text on the need to innovate methods of expression and communication in cinema."

Johan van der Keuken explains, "Some fifteen filmmakers were asked to make a film series in a relay style for a very popular variety program on Dutch television: each new program was to start from the last image of the previous program, developing the story from that image. It was necessary to work according to codes of the crime thriller. I 'sabotaged' these codes, following a close-up of a pistol, inherited from my predecessor, by a series of comic observations of my cat, accompanied by a text on the need to innovate methods of expression and communication in cinema."

Protesting youngsters chant slogans such as “Johnson murderer” and sing “Murderer, many people are being killed”. It is the late sixties. In his film, Van der Keuken presents his visual view of the changes in the mentality of a growing group of young people in Western society. He films youngsters who paint their faces and react against the monotonous lives of pen-pushers and civil servants. Their attitude exudes resistance against existing social structures.Van der Keuken exchanges images of protest marches that occasionally get out of hand with charming pictures of nature. He said the following about this film: “In the case of these youngsters, the surrounding violence is turned inside, as it were, and directed at the exploration of personal observations.” (idfa.nl)

A short TV documentary about the making of Straub-Huillet's 'Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach'

In the late sixties, the American saxophone player and living jazz legend Ben Webster lived in Amsterdam for a year. Webster, who was born in Kansas City in 1909, was a unique personality in the world of jazz and blues. In the thirties, he played with all the great names. During his Amsterdam period, he stayed with an elderly landlady, Mrs Hardloper, with whom he appeared on a national talk show. In conversations with Van der Keuken, he muses on the past; on the fantastic experience of playing in the renowned Duke Ellington band; or on one of his best friends, who was so deft at eating with a knife and fork. Short, fragmented remarks, which Van der Keuken has edited in a loose, improvised editing style.

Two years after making his film BLIND KIND, Van der Keuken contacted the blind boy that had impressed him most at the time.

BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city with some friends and knocks at strangers' doors. Her family has nine children and is not well off. In those days, a visit to the De Miranda swimming pool cost a quarter, but only ten cents if the weather was bad. At school, Beppie gets a poor mark because she is too boisterous, but when the whole class rattles off the multiplication tables, she joins in at the top of her voice. All of TV-watching Holland was wildly enthusiastic about this portrait, with which Van der Keuken even made the front page of the national newspaper De Telegraaf.

BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city with some friends and knocks at strangers' doors. Her family has nine children and is not well off. In those days, a visit to the De Miranda swimming pool cost a quarter, but only ten cents if the weather was bad. At school, Beppie gets a poor mark because she is too boisterous, but when the whole class rattles off the multiplication tables, she joins in at the top of her voice. All of TV-watching Holland was wildly enthusiastic about this portrait, with which Van der Keuken even made the front page of the national newspaper De Telegraaf.

Film essay about the slums of 1960's Amsterdam.

Collage film in which Van der Keuken makes use of Eddy Posthuma de Boer's source material.

One of Van der Keuken's earliest fictional shorts.

With the use of montage sequences, voiced over with the observations of the children, van der Keuken was able to use artistic expression to portray the sightless children’s unique perspective of the world.

An adaptation of a story by Remco Campert. The long and silent image of a boy during the morning hours, in front of a mirror.

In his very first ‘independent film’, Dutch master filmmaker Johan Van der Keuken presents an image of Amsterdam in the sixties.

Van der Keuken follows the creative process of Lucebert, a Dutch painter annex poet. Episode four of four in a series for the VPRO.

The indomitable laughter of a radical. A collage. Third of four in a series for the VPRO.

Short documentary about the visual artist Shinkichi Tajiri (1923-2009). Second of four in a series for the VPRO.

Short documentary about Yrrah, the ruthless illustrator who was always giggling. First of four in a series for the VPRO.

Rare fictional short, written by Remco Campert, in the veins of existentialism. About a young man who is in love with the girlfriend of his best pal.

In this short documentary by Johan van der Keuken, he films young women walking the streets of Amsterdam.

A 1958 French language short film written and directed by Costa-Gavras, starring Guy Mairesse, Paniaras and Jean Patrick.

Johan van der Keuken's first film is a uniquely beautiful portrait of Paris at dawn.