Willem van der Zanden
Birth : 1995-07-05, Breda, The Netherlands
History
Willem van der Zanden was born in the city of Breda, the Netherlands on the 5th of July 1995. After attending primary school in the small town of Bavel and spending 7 years at the Stedelijk Gymnasium in Breda, he started studying at the AKV St. Joost in Breda where he slowly shaped his craft. His work is very observing and often focuses on his own life or fragments of it. He personally believes his film Qu'est-ce Que C'est? to be one of the most valuable films he has made so far as it helped him discover a big part of his style. His latest film, the graduation project A Little Testament, is a close and hyper-personal examination of his struggle with depression as well as a universally applicable view on the difficulties and anxieties of becoming an adult.
Music
A 90-second short showing a fairytale-like story of an abandoned art academy and the students who once resided there.
Cinematography
A 90-second short showing a fairytale-like story of an abandoned art academy and the students who once resided there.
Editor
A 90-second short showing a fairytale-like story of an abandoned art academy and the students who once resided there.
Director
A 90-second short showing a fairytale-like story of an abandoned art academy and the students who once resided there.
Music
A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.
Editor
A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.
Cinematography
A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.
Director
A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.
Narrator
A free-flowing, poetic short film filled with expressionist imagery, old photos and abstract moments, led by a voice-over in which the director tells us personal memories of his youth and his recent life in the hopes of sketching a clear image of the complex struggle of growing from an innocent child to a weary adult.
Editor
A misty midnight. Music plays in one house, in the other, a man brushes his teeth. More and more sounds are heard yet the darkness hardly reveals where it's all coming from. It's midnight. Isn't anybody asleep?
Cinematography
A misty midnight. Music plays in one house, in the other, a man brushes his teeth. More and more sounds are heard yet the darkness hardly reveals where it's all coming from. It's midnight. Isn't anybody asleep?
Director
A misty midnight. Music plays in one house, in the other, a man brushes his teeth. More and more sounds are heard yet the darkness hardly reveals where it's all coming from. It's midnight. Isn't anybody asleep?
Camera Operator
A man steadily bashes through the snow. He disappears and the trees, covered in white, shift and show a beautiful array of hidden colors. A poetic, meditative short film about letting go of the past and embracing the unknown future.
Editor
A man steadily bashes through the snow. He disappears and the trees, covered in white, shift and show a beautiful array of hidden colors. A poetic, meditative short film about letting go of the past and embracing the unknown future.
Director
A man steadily bashes through the snow. He disappears and the trees, covered in white, shift and show a beautiful array of hidden colors. A poetic, meditative short film about letting go of the past and embracing the unknown future.
Editor
An ambient representation of depression with a slowly fading score building towards an uncertain climax.
Music
An ambient representation of depression with a slowly fading score building towards an uncertain climax.
Camera Operator
An ambient representation of depression with a slowly fading score building towards an uncertain climax.
Director
An ambient representation of depression with a slowly fading score building towards an uncertain climax.
Himself / Leo
An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.
Camera Operator
An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.
Editor
An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.
Director
An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.
Camera Operator
A short film recounting the travels of a lonely astronaut confronted by the unknown. Unfolding as a mystery, it becomes a carefully subtle, autobiographical examination of the feeling of loneliness and the existential issue of not understanding life on earth and ones place among it.
Editor
A short film recounting the travels of a lonely astronaut confronted by the unknown. Unfolding as a mystery, it becomes a carefully subtle, autobiographical examination of the feeling of loneliness and the existential issue of not understanding life on earth and ones place among it.
Director
A short film recounting the travels of a lonely astronaut confronted by the unknown. Unfolding as a mystery, it becomes a carefully subtle, autobiographical examination of the feeling of loneliness and the existential issue of not understanding life on earth and ones place among it.
Editor
A short documentary concerning a group of friends who get together, eat shawarma and drink beer. They talk utter nonsense at times, yet they couldn't be happier.
Cinematography
A short documentary concerning a group of friends who get together, eat shawarma and drink beer. They talk utter nonsense at times, yet they couldn't be happier.
Director
A short documentary concerning a group of friends who get together, eat shawarma and drink beer. They talk utter nonsense at times, yet they couldn't be happier.
Cinematography
A poetic, semi-autobiographical short film of the sun setting over a village, shot from behind the curtains of a small, dimly lit room.
Music
A poetic, semi-autobiographical short film of the sun setting over a village, shot from behind the curtains of a small, dimly lit room.
Editor
A poetic, semi-autobiographical short film of the sun setting over a village, shot from behind the curtains of a small, dimly lit room.
Director
A poetic, semi-autobiographical short film of the sun setting over a village, shot from behind the curtains of a small, dimly lit room.
Camera Operator
An experimental docu-fiction short from hours of collected material shot by the director. Different scenes, from drunk parties with friends to shots of the Dutch landscape during a train ride, are cut together to see if a narrative story can be constructed from nothing but randomly shot footage.
Director
An experimental docu-fiction short from hours of collected material shot by the director. Different scenes, from drunk parties with friends to shots of the Dutch landscape during a train ride, are cut together to see if a narrative story can be constructed from nothing but randomly shot footage.
Zichzelf
An experimental docu-fiction short from hours of collected material shot by the director. Different scenes, from drunk parties with friends to shots of the Dutch landscape during a train ride, are cut together to see if a narrative story can be constructed from nothing but randomly shot footage.
Editor
A semi-autobiographical short about a young man musing about the nostalgic joy of being a careless child.
Camera Operator
A semi-autobiographical short about a young man musing about the nostalgic joy of being a careless child.
Director
A semi-autobiographical short about a young man musing about the nostalgic joy of being a careless child.
Boy as a grown-up
A semi-autobiographical short about a young man musing about the nostalgic joy of being a careless child.
Camera Operator
A short, poetic documentary of an old woman and the loneliness that surrounds her after her husband was sent to a nursing home.
Director
A short, poetic documentary of an old woman and the loneliness that surrounds her after her husband was sent to a nursing home.
Cinematography
Set to be a fictitious film in the vein of A Little Testament where actors are not or rarely seen and only heard through voice-over, recounting the story of the young girl Sesheia who lives on a post-apocalyptic earth and has to go on a perilous journey whilst learning of the world's past and present.
Music
Set to be a fictitious film in the vein of A Little Testament where actors are not or rarely seen and only heard through voice-over, recounting the story of the young girl Sesheia who lives on a post-apocalyptic earth and has to go on a perilous journey whilst learning of the world's past and present.
Director
Set to be a fictitious film in the vein of A Little Testament where actors are not or rarely seen and only heard through voice-over, recounting the story of the young girl Sesheia who lives on a post-apocalyptic earth and has to go on a perilous journey whilst learning of the world's past and present.
