Der Weg ist zu lang I

Just like last year, the festival is presenting 12 new films shot on digital video by Pieter Moleveld. To say that Moleveld is at present in a productive period, would be a euphemism, because halfway through the year 2000 – during the national film festival in Utrecht – another 20 new Moleveld films were premièred. And he didn’t stop at these 32 works (12 in Rotterdam, 20 in Utrecht), because the real total is 54! Fifty-four films in one year! Okay, some films are not even ten minutes long and only involve a few shots recorded in the maker’s house, but this rich harvest also includes long and complex films such as Dead Soldiers Seasons, a film that was shot in a remote location in different seasons. That the festival chose these 12 films by Moleveld does not mean that the other 42 from this year’s production are less worthwhile. The selection criteria were more practical and pragmatic: the films presented are all world premières and show various aspects of the present work of Moleveld. Screening all 54 films as a special event was considered as a serious option. Hyperactivity while maintaining quality is, after all, a rarity. But the more than four and a half hours of film now programmed already makes a major claim on the time of audiences. And Moleveld’s films, thanks to their often meditative character, already demand great patience from today’s viewer who is used to high-speed impressions.With Dead Soldiers Seasons, mentioned earlier, Moleveld is ending the period in which he has taken an intensive interest in the horrors of the First World War in his work. A logical next step is a preoccupation with the Second World War and especially the Holocaust. Moleveld penetratingly investigates the festering wounds in history, but does not close his eyes to the banality of, for instance, Auschwitz as a tourist attraction. In other works too, Moleveld links the very serious and mystical with the commonplace; like a 19th-century romantic, he is able to evoke religious moods, but does not shrink from mocking these same religion expressions blasphemously as a 20th-century performance artist. His Oh Sweet Crucifix is an example of the latter category and also a film in which the maker is active both behind the camera and in front of it; a narcissistic investigation in which the film-maker stretches far beyond vanity.Gertjan Zuilhof