PLENTY 7: Filmmakers’ Holiday

Date: 31 May 2011 | Season: Plenty

PLENTY 7: FILMMAKERS’ HOLIDAY
Tuesday 31 May 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery

The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.

FILMMAKERS’ HOLIDAY
Johan van der Keuken, Netherlands, 1974, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 39 min
During a family holiday in the South of France, the filmmaker reflects on his life and career, interweaving excerpts from previous works, fragments of poetry, and the wartime memories of elderly neighbours. As he discovers the world through his son’s eyes, the film veers from the intimate to explore the universal motif of the passage from life to death.

“One of those small masterpieces one encounters by surprise.” (Jean-Paul Fargier, Cahiers du Cinéma)

The prolific documentary maker Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) is also celebrated photographer. His 55 films, which have been shown in major retrospectives around the world, often explore themes of anthropology, ethnography and economics from a personal viewpoint.

PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.