Captured
In Captured, filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff explore the complex relationship with photography within Batya’s family. Her father, Max Wolff (1926–2025), bought a camera after the war and photography became his coping mechanism for dealing with war trauma. But as he photographed, the war remained ever-present. In Captured, Batya explores her father Max’s vast image archive to tell her own, new story about the lasting impact of the war. A discovery in the family archive shifted her perspective on her family’s traumatic past.
Twice Upon A Time
Videoloop on two screens, 3'29. In collaboration with Batya Wolff, 2022.Twice Upon A Time was part of the installation The Kiss of Life, on view at the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam in 2022. Filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff sought new connections in the immense visual archive in Batya's family. How are photography and film connected to processing the Shoah? What were the motives for photography and filming before the war? And with what after? In Twice Upon a Time, Batya's oldest sister Jozee, first born after the war, is simultaneously filmed by both her father and her grandfather.
Platitudes
De Gids Literary MagazineEvery artisthood is teeming with platitudes. Repetitive anecdotes, topoi, that give every artist biography the same setup: he or she, always alone; real talent eludes schooling; thousands shouted out, only a handful chosen. Large or small talent, they all put their lives at stake for something that wants to transcend life. Art goes before offspring, reaches beyond death.
Time Warp
collaboration with Driessens/Verstappen, Rotterdam. Project duration 2003 - 2024A cinematic report on the processes of growth and change taking place on W.G. Witteveenplein in Rotterdam. Each film began with the construction of the park in early 2003 and shows the various changes that took place in the following twenty years. The films were supplemented four times a year with new material, which resulted in four very short films of 6'35" each.
Nieuwkomer
online photo documentaryFor months after I first stood on that little bridge, I continued to circle around the windmills. Not only with my camera, but also with a microphone. When you look closer, the polder turns out to be an arena of conflicting interests. The cluttering of the landscape stands in opposition to climatological necessity; economic and ecological interests are locking horns for dominance; innovation oriented towards the future has to compete with the appreciation for history. The counter argument is always around the corner.
We
Kunstvereniging Diepenheim and Rijksmuseum Twenthe, EnschedeThe definition of the word definition is: 'the description of the essence of something in one or two highly precise and succinctly formulated sentences.' That is by no means easy, and we certainly don't pretend to be able to do so. Nevertheless, there are a lot of characteristics that we find interesting and that we come up against in wondering about what might be typical of the region known as Twente. But those things aren't so much absolute as they are relative.
In Memory Of Things To Come
time capsule, RotterdamThe history of the Wilhelminasteen began on 30 May 1891 when the 10-year-old Queen Wilhelmina and Queen Mother Emma visited Rotterdam. To celebrate the occasion, hundreds of boats sailed on the Maas and 3,000 schoolchildren performed an aubade. The brand-new little Queen will give her name to the Wilhelmina Quay and the act that goes with it is a stone-laying ceremony.