ACHTER DE SCHERMEN

Lent is the 40-day period before Easter traditionally reserved for fasting. A tradition that echoes the people of Israel's 40-year journey in the desert, as well as Jesus' forty days of solitude and abstinence. A time in which to simplify, withdraw and ask the question - who am I apart from my people, my daily activities and routines; apart from what normally sustains me?

But who is the filmmaker when separated from all screens and moving images? For that will be my fast: no smartphone, no computer, no TV, not even a visit to the cinema until Easter. It's not a break from work - but the work of making films will inevitably be transformed.

Viewfinders on analog camera's are of course just a combination of glass and metal. When I look through my Nikon FE, my baby Rolleiflex or my new, hand wound 16mm Bolex (1957), I am simply looking at the world. Not being drowned in a tsunami of images made by others with their agenda's. My hormones not being targeted directly. Choosing what to look at and seeing the world as it is in all its daily splendour, banality and suffering. That at least is part of my hope - that by closing my eyes to what wants to be seen, to what constantly screams to be seen, I will learn to see and hear anew. For to see anew is to feel, think and be anew. It is to know the world and my place in it - anew.

I will capture this experiment in handwriting - and in light caught on celluloid. How exactly I will share these words, these images; lessons learned and insights gained... This will remain an offscreen mystery - until at least Easter morning.