Remembering Vincent Monnikendam and John Bailey
04 April 2024
Over the past few months, IFFR was saddened to hear of the passing of two individuals whose devotion to their work touched the festival. The American cinematographer John Bailey and Dutch documentarian Vincent Monnikendam were both featured in our anniversary publication 25 Encounters where they explored in conversations with Martin van Broekhoven and Izza Génini respectively their love for the medium. We remember them with two passages that recall their thoughtful and passionate approach to their work, and especially to cinema.
John Bailey (1942–2023) was an American cinematographer and former President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was best known for shooting Ordinary People (dir. Robert Redford, 1980), Groundhog Day (dir. Harold Ramis, 1994) and As Good as it Gets (dir. James L. Brooks, 1998), amongst many others. In 25 Encounters, he spoke about the nuances and joy of celluloid after working as a cinema projectionist in the analogue heyday.
“Aside from the difference between digital and film projection, the difference between a nitrate black and white film and a safety-based black and white film, which basically started in the '50s, is significant. I remember when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art used to run nitrate prints in the '70s. I saw several nitrate prints of silent films. Their glow is amazing! It's almost like they're lit from the inside. They don't even look like they're projected. It's an amazing look.”
Vincent Monnikendam (1936–2024) was a Dutch filmmaker, documentarian and poet. He worked in television for many years, before he became an independent documentary maker in 1995. With Mother Dao, the Turtlelike (IFFR 1995) he put together fragments of nitrate films about the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. In Zielen van Napels (IFFR 2005) he went in search of the soul of Naples, combining stories, poems and music.
“Is it a good film or not? It has nothing to do with whether it's fiction or documentary, or anything like that. You look at it as a product and throw away all the categories. To make a film, in the way that you have done as well, it's essential to live with the people. One needs to take a close look first and try to enter the soul of the community, the soul of the people. Once you reach that point where you are sufficiently informed and part of the community, so to speak, then you take the camera and start filming.”
