At the invitation of the Netherlands Film Museum (NFM) film- maker and essayist Hartmut Bitomsky led a workshop in the first few weeks of 1995 about the oldest non-fiction films (period 1910-1920) from the museum's huge collection in this field. The last Rotterdam festival saw a theatrical presentation of the provisional results as a work in progress. The workshop has the character of a master class with a select group of critics, film- makers and curators and was recorded on video by students at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy (NFTVA). From more than sixty hours of video, Bitomsky cut a video film that provides a glimpse behind the scenes at the workshop while also being a filmic essay on how to look at historic film material. In a certain sense, this video essay documents the unique conservation policy of the NFM, that has been developed in recent ten years by the film-makers/curators Eric de Kuyper and Peter Delpeut (the latter also took part in the workshop). In the video film there is a striking role for the film critic, film-maker and former programme-advisor to this festival Mart Dominicus. The more cerebral, erudite but also passionate Bitomsky confronts the insights of Dominicus - always ventilated with humour and radically anti-intellectual - with a more contemplative approach. This essay on video also includes many fine fragments from the films looked at during the workshop.
- Directors
- Harmut Bitomsky, Hartmut Bitomsky
- Premiere
- World premiere
- Country of production
- Netherlands
- Year
- 1995
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 1996
- Length
- 80'
- Medium
- Betacam SP PAL
- Language
- English
- Producers
- EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Big Sky Film, Frank Roumen
- Screenplay
- Hartmut Bitomsky