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20/3/2020 / Issue #029 / Text: Luisa Fernanda González Valencia, Luna Hupperetz

A rebellious and political film history to be rediscovered The Cineclub Vrijheidfilms collection: 30 years of a militant Dutch film circuit

In November 1966,  a collective of filmmakers and activists called Cineclub Vrijheidsfilms organized their first film night of political documentaries in Filmtheater Kriterion. Cineclub saw cinema as an activist tool to support both local and global political and social struggles. Their motto was “waar anderen zwijgen, spreken wij” (“where others remain silent, we speak”). They demonstrated this through their first film programme that consisted of Le Ciel, La Terre (Joris Ivens, 1965) and the short film Omdat mijn fiets daar stond (Louis van Gasteren, 1966). Ivens’ documentary called for sympathy for Vietnamese people, rejecting aggression from the United States. Van Gasteren‘s militant short film forces the viewer to take a closer look at police violence enforced on students who protested the marriage of crown princess Beatrix to German diplomat Claus von Amsberg, due to his involvement with the Hitler Youth. A later public screening of Omdat mijn fiets daar stond (Because My Bike Stood There) was a direct act against the Dutch film Censorship Board who a year earlier hadn’t allowed the film to be exhibited because it was seen as “manipulative and causing to undermine the authorities”. The film’s premiere was made possible through the construction of a membership based “Cineclub”, which replaced the purchase of a film ticket with a membership to the Club. Screening subversive films within such a ‘closed association’ was not illegal, and was a smart way to bypass the censorship laws.

In addition to getting involved with distribution and exhibition, Cineclub also got involved with the production. One film was De Maagdenhuisfilm (1969), which documented a student occupation of the University of Amsterdam’s administrative center to demand a more democratic institution. Their last celluloid production, Vrouwen van Suriname (1979), was an anti-colonial, feminist portrait of the lives of five Surinamese women. This film followed the recent independence of Suriname in 1976, and shed a light on the experience of the Surinamese migrants entering the Netherlands the hostile responses they experienced. Compared to other Dutch film collectives of that time, Cineclub was unique in the sense that it combined its film practices with political actions. It was not connected to any specific political party but did collaborate with many (inter)national political action groups and committees. Their political actions ranged from raising local concerns in Amsterdam through neighbourhood activities by squatting to supporting the “Free Bobby Seale” campaigns by organizing screenings on the Dutch Black Panther Day. During their peak in 1970-1974, Cineclub grew into a national network named the Cineclub Coordination Center. Their distribution catalogue of more than 130 films were programmed and rented out by activists, teachers, workers, students and film programmers in order to screen them at alternative venues such as schools and neighbourhood centers.

With a heavy decrease in renting requests and the death of its founder At van Praag in 1986, Cineclub Vrijheidsfilms stopped in 1987. In 2003, the film collection and paper archive was bought by the International Institute of Social History (IISH). The collection included 180 celluloid films, a paper archive consisting of posters, correspondences with filmmakers and collectives, plus photos and audiotapes of various demonstrations. In 2019, students João Diaz Pessoa, Luna Hupperetz and Luisa González and, Floris Paalman, a professor at the University of Amsterdam’s Media Department, together with Eye Filmmuseum curators Simona Monizza and Rommy Albers, started researching the collection. They discovered an impressive set of political images that unveiled the 1960s’ global left-wing movement and how this period of activism was embedded within the Dutch militant cinema circuit.

After more than thirty years since the Cineclub Vrijheidfilms ceased its activities, a selection of films from their distribution and production collection will be shown in March 2020 in two of Amsterdam’s cinemas.

As part of the film program Clásicos Latinoamericanos, a collaboration between Filmhuis Cavia and Filmtheater Kriterion, there will be two evenings in March with Cineclub films and a Q&A.

Sunday 15th of March at 19.30 Filmhuis Cavia: Guerrilla Films
Rio Chiquito (1965) - made with the FARC in Colombia.
El Salvador, el pueblo vencerá (1980) - made by the FMLN in El Salvador. Underground productions that walk between thin lines of propaganda, social activism, utopia, and dystopia.

Thursday 26th of March at 19.30 in Filmtheater Kriterion: Cineclub Vrijheidfilms’ Third Cinema creations
En la Selva hay Mucho por Hacer (1974) a collaboration with jazz Orkest de Volharding (Orchestra Perseverance) to produce a Dutch soundtrack for this animated film to raise awareness in children of the dictatorship in Uruguay.
Vrouwen van Suriname (1979). made in collaboration with  LOSON (National Organisation of Surinamese in the Netherlands), from which its ex-members Juanita and Henk Lajli, that were involved in the production and exhibition of the film, will be present for a Q&A .

Hopefully, these screenings are just the beginning of a re-discovery of an important part of the rebellious and activist history of the Netherlands through the archive of the Cineclub Vrijheidfilms.