On Thursday, February 23rd, I attended
the first screening of films from Netherlands Meets New York and saw nine short
films shot by students from the Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied
Sciences along with Hunter College’s Department of Film & Media Studies and
the IMA/MFA Integrated Media Arts Program. The first film was titled, An Ode to
Dolomitenblick and directed by Fleur Born & Layla Bil. The film was shot on
a 700D Canon on an modal pod. The film shows individuals ice skating on top of
an frozen lake in Dolomitenblick. She included multiple shots of the ice
skaters intense faces and frozen beards. The second film was titled, A Winter
Meditation and directed by Zoya Baker. Baker is an Animation major and this
film was made for her Animation course. The film represents the feeling of
being between projects and the fleeting feeling of our inbetweenness. She had
shots of mountains, moss, ants, seagulls, and humans in slow-motion. She shot
the film using time lapse while flying inside a plane. She shot the film
without sound to give an unique texture to the film. The third film was titled,
S.N.A.I.L. and was directed by Fatima Warsame. Warsame created this film for
her Media course, she was given a 48 hour restriction on making this film, and
the given prompt of the film was the word, snail. The film is centered around
an man in his 20s or 30s who ends up downloading an virus called S.N.A.I.L.
into his computer after clicking a Korean pop video. He runs around his house
as the camera quickly follows him given an intense emotion of fear and dread.
He grabs a can of salt and pours a salt circle around him stopping the virus from
completely affecting his computer. A got an Supernatural vibe after seeing the
shot of the salt circle. The salt circle represents a form of protection and
salt is usually used to kill a sail which was the angle Warsame was trying to
push.
The fourth film was titled, Coppersky and was
directed by Hein van den Bogaert. Bogaert recorded an concert of an band form
the Netherlands called Coppersky. He recorded on an Steadicam using an 700D
Canon and recorded the band on and off stage as well as the audience. He
described the film as an All Access Pass of the band. The fifth film was
titled, Democratic Phone Bank and directed by Ana Marie Rico. Rico created this
film for her Mobile Recording course and features still shots inside of an DNC
VoteBuilder office and voice recordings of the head woman who works there. She
addresses the negative views against Trump. The sixth film was titled,
Multicellualrity and was directed by Zoya Baker. The film is completely
animated and shows how billions of cells look under a microscope. These
billions of cells begin to come together to form super organisms. Then these
super organisms come together to form one big cell. Baker created this film to
show how science has a lot of power. The film was created using a IPhone, a app
called After Effects, and puppet pins. The seventh film was titled, Convent and
was directed by Els Anker. The film is centered around an monastery in Norway
and includes shots of the outside and inside of the church. It also includes
interviews/voiceovers of the nuns and priests who work there. They address the
issues of poverty, sex, and drugs in developing cultures. Anker described these
women as having a very warm and nice personality. The eighth film was titled,
May 22, 2012 and was directed by Samantha Farinella. The film is centered
around the loss of Farinella’s mother. There are no shots of people only shots
of Farinella’s parents’ home both inside and outside. The shots inside the home
represent the emptiness of the home without her mother. It was shot first then
the essay was written last and incorporated into the film as a form of dialogue
spoken by Farinella. There is a shot of a white blurry background and a shot of
white Japanese sculptures. I felt the color white symbolize death after it made
me think of the phrase from the bible, “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse!
And its rider’s name was death”. When I asked Farinella about the color choice
she said she wanted to make the background shot black first but changed it to
white after thinking about the same phrase from the bible. She took shot of the
Japanese sculptures because after she studied a little on Japanese culture she
discovered the color white is often associated with funerals and felt it fit
the tone of her film. The ninth film was titled, VISA and was directed by Edel
Garstad. Garstad created the film for her Thesis course and its centered around
an Hispanic woman who just got her Visa denied and gets fired from his job due
to it. Her relationship with her boyfriend begins to fall apart after he begins
to consider sleeping with other women while she is gone. She begins to feel he
is pushing her away. Then in the end of the film he considers marrying her so
she can stay in the states because he doesn’t want her to go but she declines
his offer then the film cuts off with a two shot of them staring into the
camera.
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