Peter Thompson

Movies

Lowlands
Director
Lowlands explores the fragility of domestic and creative life in time of war. Its focus is Catharina Bolnes, wife and widow of 17th century painter, Johannes Vermeer of Delft. The film explores her struggle to ensure the family’s survival during the France-Netherlands War (1672-1675), and the bankruptcy she declares after Vermeer’s death leaves her with no income and ten minor children. The film is built from varied sources including paintings of Catharina by Vermeer; etchings depicting Louis XIV’s policy of rape warfare; reenactments of legal depositions by the Vermeer family about domestic violence, forged paintings and bankruptcy; archival b/w films taken in Delft during WWII; contemporary color footage tracking the movements of Louis XIV’s army near Delft in 1672; a deposition by a perpetrator of rape warfare at the Criminal Tribunal in the Hague in 1996….
El Movimiento
Producer
"Over a decade in the making, El Movimiento [...] follows the relationship between Don Chabo, a Mayan shaman in Yucatan, and William F. Hanks, the Chicago anthropologist he improbably selected as his sole apprentice, showing how both men think, work, and dream." J. Rosenbaum - Chicago Reader
El Movimiento
Director
"Over a decade in the making, El Movimiento [...] follows the relationship between Don Chabo, a Mayan shaman in Yucatan, and William F. Hanks, the Chicago anthropologist he improbably selected as his sole apprentice, showing how both men think, work, and dream." J. Rosenbaum - Chicago Reader
Universal Citizen
Narrator
Universal Citizen is a multifaceted personal travelogue that brings us to a real Universal Hotel, in Guatemala, and to the same public square in Siena that appears at the beginning of Universal Hotel; at the center of the film are Thompson's off screen meetings with a Libyan Jew and former Dachau inmate who works as a smuggler in Guatemala and refuses to be photographed. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Universal Citizen
Director
Universal Citizen is a multifaceted personal travelogue that brings us to a real Universal Hotel, in Guatemala, and to the same public square in Siena that appears at the beginning of Universal Hotel; at the center of the film are Thompson's off screen meetings with a Libyan Jew and former Dachau inmate who works as a smuggler in Guatemala and refuses to be photographed. (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Universal Hotel
The Narrator
Universal Hotel combines objective and subjective elements. In it, Thompson chronicles his research into experiments by Dr. Sigmund Rascher at Dachau in 1942, in which he nearly froze a Polish prisoner and then got a German prostitute to warm him up; Thompson uses photographs from archives in six countries and recounts a subjective dream set in what he calls the Universal Hotel.
Universal Hotel
Director
Universal Hotel combines objective and subjective elements. In it, Thompson chronicles his research into experiments by Dr. Sigmund Rascher at Dachau in 1942, in which he nearly froze a Polish prisoner and then got a German prostitute to warm him up; Thompson uses photographs from archives in six countries and recounts a subjective dream set in what he calls the Universal Hotel.
Two Portraits
Director
A portrait of the director's father, Tommy Thompson, and mother, Betty Thompson, each with their own section.
Anything Else
Director