Willem Baptist

Movies

Shabu
Producer
Fourteen-year-old Shabu is a good-natured, creative, and street-smart boy from the south of Rotterdam. When he wrecks his grandmother’s car on a joyride, his whole family is angry with him. He has a summer to make amends before his grandmother returns from a vacation in Suriname.
When Forever Dies
Producer
An archival fiction feature about the eternal battle of the sexes, in which two star-crossed lovers trapped in a kingdom of shadows fight to keep their love alive as they gradually fall in hate. Their names are Forever Man and Forever Woman. They are embodied by actors and actresses from long-gone eras, but also by cartoon characters and puppet animations. Together they narrate the story of the euphoric ups and tragic downs of human existence. When Forever Dies, a virtuoso collage of film fragments from the Eye Filmmuseum archive, is an epic ode to largely unseen cinema anchored in the polarizing world of today.
Ring of Dreams
Producer
In a world where fantasy meets reality, Tengkwa leads a band of Dutch wrestlers and tries to train a new generation of superheroes. With slim chances of fame and glory, only the most die-hard of them will succeed.
Ring of Dreams
Director
In a world where fantasy meets reality, Tengkwa leads a band of Dutch wrestlers and tries to train a new generation of superheroes. With slim chances of fame and glory, only the most die-hard of them will succeed.
Instant Dreams
Writer
There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pin-sharp photos on an iPhone. In this ambitious visual essay, Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H. Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Even today, all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive. Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 2.0 version of Polaroid. Christopher Bonanos, the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, tells us, "When I heard Polaroid would stop making film, it felt like a close friend had died." Artist Stefanie Schneider, who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film, is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work.
Instant Dreams
Director
There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pin-sharp photos on an iPhone. In this ambitious visual essay, Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H. Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Even today, all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive. Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 2.0 version of Polaroid. Christopher Bonanos, the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, tells us, "When I heard Polaroid would stop making film, it felt like a close friend had died." Artist Stefanie Schneider, who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film, is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work.
Young Wrestlers
Writer
“Let’s see if you gained any weight. 26,3 kilogram. Ahmet, you need to eat more. Double meals.” Like other boys their age, Baran, Ahmet and their classmates wrestle with the desire for recognition, with homesickness and with their target weights. Most of all though, they wrestle with, and against, one another. They are comrades and competitors, united by one and the same dream: Olympic gold! In their wrestling academy in the Turkish province of Amasya, which is well known for this traditional form of combat sport, they undergo strength and endurance training, they learn lifts and throws, they urge each other on and they console one another. Always responding to the boys’ needs, the trainers give the boys tough love, sometimes fatherly, sometimes strict and disciplinary. The film’s intimate documental camera bears close witness to the fine line between friendship and competition, victory and the lesson of how to lose.
Bird Strike
Creative Producer
In Bird Strike, we see how man and animal must share the air space and the resulting consequences. In this visual story different characters struggle with their curious relationship with unpredictable flying troublemakers. Will man manage to get his own way, or will nature have the final say in this battle for the skies?
Wild Zwijn
Writer
In nature only one rule counts; eat or be eaten. WILD BOAR is a poetic, and visually arresting documentary about the curious relationship between man and the rise of the wild boar. The film tells a story about confusion, despair and opportunity amidst the invasion of unruly creatures that won’t abide by manmade rules and laws. From the dark woods where it originates, this almost uncontrollably dangerous creature goes deeper and deeper into our villages and cities but at the same time tickles our imagination and inspires us. WILD BOAR is an exploration of a society conflicted with nature and a reflection of the curiosity of human nature itself. Will we eat them or will they eventually devour us?
Wild Zwijn
Director
In nature only one rule counts; eat or be eaten. WILD BOAR is a poetic, and visually arresting documentary about the curious relationship between man and the rise of the wild boar. The film tells a story about confusion, despair and opportunity amidst the invasion of unruly creatures that won’t abide by manmade rules and laws. From the dark woods where it originates, this almost uncontrollably dangerous creature goes deeper and deeper into our villages and cities but at the same time tickles our imagination and inspires us. WILD BOAR is an exploration of a society conflicted with nature and a reflection of the curiosity of human nature itself. Will we eat them or will they eventually devour us?