Meet the Maestro: Meet Gus Van Sant

This year’s Province of South Holland project Meet the Maestro focuses on the American Gus Van Sant (1952, Louisville). Van Sant is a creative master of all trades who also works as a producer, writer, editor, actor photographer and musician. He made his first full-length feature film Mala noche in 1985. Since then he has moved without difficulty between Hollywood and the independent cinema. After mainstream films such as Good Will Hunting (1997) and Finding Forrester (2000), he always returns to his small-scale portraits about people on the underside of society, such as Gerry (2001) and Elephant (2003), both of which were screened at the festival.
Van Sant’s debut Mala noche (1986) will have another premiere during the festival, with digitally improved sound and blown up to 35 mm. In addition, three directors have been commissioned by the festival to make a film inspired by the oeuvre of Van Sant: the Belgian Dorothée van den Berghe, Liew Seng Tat from Malaysia and the American Kevin Jerome Everson.
Van den Berghe: ‘What especially appeals to me in the work of Gus Van Sant is the intimate bond you get with the characters. I think that largely comes because as a viewer you’re given time to get to know them, thanks to the slow rhythm, the long shots and the soundtrack that sucks you into their world. I wanted to try and capture that intimacy too, without intervening with all too much cinematographic artifice.’
Kevin Jerome Everson: ‘Gus Van Sant is someone who does his own thing, which is pretty rare in America.’
Liew Seng Tat: ‘I am crazy about his imagination and his poetic approach. I think his work is sensual and filled with subtle and ironic humour when it needs to be.’
Meet the Maestro is a cooperative project between the festival in Rotterdam, the film theatres in South Holland and Kunstgebouw, commissioned by the Province of South Holland. In this framework, the provincial film theatres have also screened To Die For, an older film by Gus Van Sant. Several schools in Holland are taking part in an educational project based on the work of Van Sant.