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Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) was a Dutch filmmaker and photographer. At the age of seventeen, he already made a name for himself with Wij zijn 17 (1955), a photo book of portraits of peers. A year later, he entered the Paris film school IDHEC, where he discovered a growing passion for filmmaking. As a filmmaker, he broke through with experimental documentaries such as Blind kind (1964) and the North-South trilogy (Dagboek, Het witte kasteel, en De nieuwe ijstijd, 1972-1974) in which he depicted increasing global inequality. He made more than fifty films.

Van der Keuken was also a gifted writer on cinema, an activity through which he sought to delineate his practice as a filmmaker. “For myself, writing was necessary at times, because something lived inside of me, floated before my eyes, that I wanted to grasp. With hermetic formulas or intuitive stammering, speculative ebullitions or harsh prescriptions for the world.” This collection of texts by Johan van der Keuken offers a chance to (re)discover him not only as a filmmaker but also as one of the most original writers on cinema.

Over Johan van der Keuken

Article
16.10.2024
NL

Van der Keuken doet een wereld bestaan, hij creëert een werkelijkheid. Beschrijven is dan niet het representeren van iets dat al bestaat maar eerder het realiseren van “een” werkelijkheid. Door het creëren van vormen schept hij een wereld van dingen die in onze verbeelding tot leven komt. Herman bestaat wel degelijk, als vorm. Het geluk waar Van der Keuken ons deel van maakt, is net die magische realisatie van de wereld op het scherm, waar het innerlijke plots buitenkant wordt.

Conversation
02.10.2024
FR EN

Rastko Novaković: After six decades of filmmaking, can you say what an image is, for you?

Alain Cavalier: Being able to take my camera out of its bag, when I’m struck by a human act, and having the chance to be well placed so that a cinematographic grace inhabits the shot.

Faraz Fesharaki on Was hast du gestern geträumt, Parajanov? (2024)

Conversation
09.10.2024
EN

I manipulated the footage so much during editing that the boundaries between reality and fiction blurred. But even then, I don’t think it’s unreal, because what is real anyway? Even when you observe reality, you’re seeing it from a specific angle, editing it in your mind. That’s what I learned in the editing room – how different angles and edits can create entirely different versions of the same family.

Deel 2

Article
09.10.2024
NL FR
1 2

Onder het heerlijke ontbijt van pancakes met maple syrup spelde ik de Daily Variety uit, vooral de berichten over wie zich op welk moment waar bevindt. De rubriek From Los Angeles to New York; from New York to Los Angeles is belangrijker dan de weersvoorspelling. Zo kon ik Chantal dagelijks op de hoogte houden van het wel en wee van Hollywood, ons nieuwe dorp.

Deel 1

Article
25.09.2024
NL FR
1 2

Ze hield veel van een dialoog uit de film Muriel ou le temps d’un retour. Een vreemdeling in een nieuwbouwstad vraagt: “Pourriez-vous me dire, madame, où est le centre?” Zij antwoordt: “Mais vous y êtes, monsieur!” Is men er reeds of is men reeds elders? Komt men er ooit? Versnipperd zijn de centra, uit elkaar gerukt de koninkrijken en de steden.

Article
11.09.2024
EN

This article is an extended version of a lecture held by Eric de Kuyper, co-writer of La captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000), at the cinema of the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt on 1 November 2018, before the screening of the film. Eric de Kuyper: “Before I start, let me say this: No artist, no creator is able to analyse his or her own work. Of course, there are many artists who pretend to be able to evaluate their work. Don’t trust them. So, I will not be able – as a cowriter – to analyse La captive for you. What I can do is to tell you about … what happened in the kitchen.”

Article
04.09.2024
EN

If you notice the people around you while watching a film, you will see that their behaviour is like that of ghosts, lifting up their heads to look at the moving images in front. The cinema itself is like a coffin with bodies, sitting still, as if under a spell. The moving images on the screen are camera records of events that have already taken place; they are remains of the past, strung together and called a film. In this hall of darkness, ghosts are watching ghosts. 

The Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

04.09.2024
A COLLECTION OF 5 texts, 16 film pages, 2 news items
NL EN

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (1970) is known for, among other films, Tropical Malady (2004) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), which shows, in Apichatpong’s words, “the relationship between man and animal and at the same time destroys the line dividing them”. His latest film, Memoria (2021), takes place in Columbia, where a deep historical context resonates, foreign to both the main character and the director himself. His films experiment with the dramatic plot structure of Thai television, radio programs, comics and films. He often uses improvised dialogues and non-professional actors, exploring the boundaries between documentary and fiction.

NEWS
11.10.2024
EN

Until 23 October, the Palestine Film Institute presents Provoked Narratives, a programme featuring ten films made between 1967 and 1984 in various contexts, each using different grammars of resistance, all live and resonant to this day. All films are freely available to stream on the Palestine Film Platform.

NEWS
17.10.2024
EN

On the occasion of Seeing, Looking, Filming, the Johan van der Keuken retrospective presented by Sabzian and CINEMATEK, Sabzian launches a new print publication. The publication contains Van der Keuken’s original French text ‘Méandres,’ along with translations in Dutch and English.