Experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

makers ask whether things could not be done differently.

Underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include: John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's '' Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's '' ...

s analyse and critique the mainstream

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, p ...

. They step back and reflect. Simultaneously, they take forward leaps to assess new options. Sometimes the makers are self-taught

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

ists who make innovative work thanks to their original point of view. Other

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

s primarily play with the medium film and seek an alternative to the dominant visual culture.

The 1920s

The history of Dutch experimental or

avant-garde film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

dates back to the 1920s. 1927 saw the publication of a manifesto for the founding of the Filmliga. The movement's leaders

Menno ter Braak Menno ter Braak (26 January 1902 – 14 May 1940) was a Dutch modernist writer, critic, essayist, and journalist. Early career Ter Braak was born in Eibergen and grew up in the town of Tiel where he was an exemplary student. He went on to ...

and E. du Perron's embraced free film art, paying particular attention to the editing, rhythm and composition of films. The Filmliga movement includes the Soviet avant-garde inspired documentaries of Joris Ivens, the scientific films of J.C. Mol (who evoked an aesthetic, abstract world with his 'Het rijk der kristallen') and the work of Alexander von Barsy, Paul Schuitema, Willem Bon and Mannus Franken.

The 1960s

After a lull during the 1930s and 1940s, primarily a time of playful, poetic films by Bert Haanstra ('Spiegel van Nederland') and ('The Cuckoo Waltz (Koekoekswals)'), international avant-garde film underwent a renaissance in 1949 with the foundation of the Exprmntl Festival in Knokke-Le-Zoute. Later editions of the festival would screen films by Johan van der Keuken ('Lucebert, dichter-schilder', 1962) and Wim van der Linden/

Wim T. Schippers Willem Theodoor "Wim T." Schippers (; born 1 July 1942) is a Dutch artist, comedian, television director, and voice actor. During the 1960s, he worked mostly as a visual artist, associated with the international Fluxus-movement. As a television w ...

, who filmed a motionless bunch of

tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

s that drops a single petal at the very end, for their sad movie 'Tulips' (1966). 1967 saw the founding of The New Electric Cinema in Eindhoven, which organised happenings involving music concrete made with

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven. The dirt is collected by either a ...

s combined with found footage material. In 1970, Frans Zwartjes started teaching at the Vrije Academie in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

where he became an influential mentor to an entire generation of artists such as Jan Ketelaars, Gijs Schneemann, Matthijs Blonk, George Schouten and Ruud Monster, who constituted the so-called ‘Haagse Psychopolis school’. Zwartjes formulated his method as follows:

“I don't tell them anything. They have to work it out for themselves. There are no rules.”

The 1960s saw the rise of a group of young filmmakers who had been trained at the Nederlandse Filmacademie which was founded in 1958. This new generation, led by Wim Verstappen, Pim de la Parra,

Nikolai van der Heyde Nikolai van der Heyde (23 January 1936 – 6 August 2020) was a Dutch film director and screenwriter.Adriaan Ditvoorst Adriaan Ditvoorst (23 January 1940 – 18 October 1987) was a Dutch film director and screenwriter. He directed nine films between 1965 and 1984. His 1967 film ''Paranoia'' was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival. Selec ...

, saw themselves as revolutionaries and wanted to give the staid film world a rude awakening. In this respect they were aligned with the

Nouvelle Vague French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

and the Neue Deutsche Film. The epicentre of experimental film up until 1974 was the Electric Cinema, run by STOFF employees Barbara Meter, Mattijn Seip, Nico Paape and Jos Schoffelen. Barbara Meter on those turbulent times:

“You didn't have to fight your way through the hierarchy, but could just grab a camera and get to work.”

Visual artists who used the medium film constituted a relatively independent development within experimental film in the 1960s. The work of

Shinkichi Tajiri Shinkichi Tajiri (Los Angeles, December 7, 1923 – Baarlo, Netherlands, March 15, 2009) was an American sculptor who resided in the Netherlands from 1956 onwards. He was also active in painting, photography and cinematography. Childhood and ...

, who lived in the Netherlands, attracted attention from the early 1960s onwards and from the end of that decade, he was joined by

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

ists such as Jan Dibbets, Bas Jan Ader, Peter Struycken, Marinus van Boezem, Ger van Elk and Michel Cardena. In the 1970s, movements such as structuralist film lost ground and were replaced by films with a critical subtext. Together with Willum Thijssen and Paul de Mol, Peter Rubin founded Holland Experimental Film (HEF) the principal goal of which was to screen Dutch experimental films abroad.

The 1980s

This decade is known as the golden age of

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

. The latter's breakthrough in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

was the ‘Sonsbeek buiten de perken’ festival in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

in 1972. From 1985 to 1995, the AVÉ festival was organised in Arnhem, which later morphed into the Hard Kijken festival. The World Wide Videofestival took place for the first time in 1982. Two years later the exhibition The Illuminous Light was organised at the Stedelijk Museum in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. And the Impakt Festival was founded in 1988. In their work, conceptual artists such as Dibbets, Van Elk, Boezem, Struycken and the Columbian Raoul Marroquin who resided in the Netherlands, experimented with video. Other important filmmakers from the 1980s were Frank Scheffer, Noud Heerkens, Gerard Holthuis, Ruud Monster, Frederieke Jochems and Andras Hamelberg, Pieter Moleveld and Barbara Meter, who started working again after a 10-year break. The Kunstkanaal – a weekly video art show on cable TV in Amsterdam,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

and The Hague, was founded in 1987.

The 1990s

Screening opportunities arose for a new generation of filmmakers thanks to the founding of Cinema De Balie in 1996, the professionalisation of the Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst and the Mind The Gap evenings at De Unie in Rotterdam. During the 1990s new initiatives, such as Studio Eén in Arnhem (later De Werkplaats in Rotterdam), the Filmstad foundation in The Hague and Lazy Marie in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, primarily focused on the production of 8 mm or 16 mm, low-budget films. During the 1990s, filmmakers such as Joost Rekveld,

Aryan Kaganof Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. In 1999 he changed his name to Aryan Kaganof. Partial filmography * 1992: '' Kyodai Makes the Big Time'' (91min, Netherlands), drama feat ...

, Jeroen Eisinga, Karel Doing, Francien van Everdingen, Lonnie van Brummelen, Jan Willem van Dam and

Martha Colburn Martha Colburn is a filmmaker and artist. She is best known for her animation films, which are created through puppetry, collage, and paint on glass techniques. She also makes installations and performs her films with live musical performance. Yet ...

garnered attention. The decade also saw a resurgence of experimental animation and abstract film. Joost Rekveld had the following to say about his light films that are all made without a camera and are all named after

prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

“To me, maths is not a cult of numbers and abstractions. It is very concrete.”

2000 to the present

In the preceding years, experimental film seemed to be overshadowed by video art, but during the early years of the 21st century, it once again attracted attention, particularly from artists. (source: mm2) De Filmbank, which inventories, presents and distributes contemporary Dutch experimental film in all sorts of ways (through rental, entries to Dutch and foreign

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

s, publications and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s), was founded in 2001 by Karel Doing, Anna Abrahams, Peter Van Hoof and others. The Filmmuseum conserves experimental films in the framework of the 'Collectie Nederland van de Experimentele Film' project, this was followed by a Filmbank tour which included films by Barbara Meter, Henri Plaat and Frans Zwartjes. Plaat refers to his films as 'incantations', Meter refers to a

“proposal to experience time and space differently”

and Zwartjes says:

“The only useful answer to the crap around you is art.”

Rotterdam gained another screening venue with the Worm, while the Rotterdamse Filmwerkplaats organises workshops for filmmakers. The Filmmuseum also conserved another selection of the Dutch experimental heritage and this was screened at the festival Filmmuseum Experimenteel in 2008.

The 1920s

The 1960s

The 1980s

The 1990s

2000 to the present

References

External links