News

WdKA alumni featured at IFFR 2022

Mon 24 Jan

In this year’s (online) edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam that takes place from January 26th to February 6th, several WdKA alumni are part of the ‘RTM’ program. With RTM, IFFR puts films and makers from Rotterdam in the spotlight. The program is filled with long and short films, series and documentaries. Everything revolves around the talented makers and stories from the city with impact far beyond. We are so proud to see the work of former students featured at this festival: René van Zundert, Reyndert Guiljam, Arif Abdillah and Marieke van der Lippe.

'Mondig Zuid', a film by René van Zundert

This documentary series follows three young people in Rotterdam-Zuid, each of whom is grappling in their own way with the trials of growing up. Tamia is an articulate girl with strong opinions, who wants to be a spoken-word artist, for which she is relentlessly teased: “They call me extra, unnecessary, different.” Selena has a mouth full of braces, a distant sister, and a father who has a clumsy way of showing his love. She really wants to spend time with the whole family, and to have a good time together. “Nobody has manners here.” Darlin, who was born on Curaçao and grew up in the Dominican Republic, wants nothing other than to work to support his mother, who has serious health problems: “I want to finish school and not get a criminal record.”

This series follows the three of them in their everyday lives, as they talk openly about their doubts, fears, and dreams. The loving camera exposes their vulnerability, but above all their courage and determination.

You can buy your tickets via https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2022/films/mondig-zuid

'Géza', a film by Reyndert Guiljam

This film is a portrait of a colourful character who refuses to be tragic. A villa in Hillegersberg with a speedboat moored to his own jetty, expensive cars, lunch at Old Dutch – life smiled at criminal lawyer Géza Szegedi. Until the tax authorities came to put things straight. Penniless and without regret, he looks back at his glory years.

You can buy your tickets via https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2022/films/géza

'If Paradise Is Half As Nice', a film by Marieke van der Lippe

Over the summer of 2020, artists’ collective IPIHAN settled at the former Beton Centrale Rotterdam site. They left the comfort of their studios to come up with concepts, artworks and, ultimately, an exhibition, in situ. Artists Pim Palsgraaf, Daan Botlek, Willem Besselink, Ties Ten Bosch, Jordy Walker, Michiel Jansen, Toine Klaassen and Esther Kokmeijer as well as German artist Regina Kelaita, guest artist Leslie Nagel, art and architectural historian Guus Vreeburg, photographer Aad Hoogendoorn, and Marieke van der Lippe took over the abandoned site for a few weeks and created art with what the location had to offer, from materials to space and the dynamics of deterioration.

Van der Lippe recorded the whole process with her camera: the comradeship, life in a place with nothing, but where everything is possible and the end results of this artistic, idyllic pressure cooker.

You can buy your tickets via https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2022/films/if-paradise-is-half-as-nice

'Science Around Us', a film by ARIV.

The Science Around us is a film about an Airbnb owner in Rotterdam. After finding out that his father is admitted to the hospital and refuses medical treatment, Budi, an Indonesian living in the Netherlands finds himself needing to convince his stubborn father to accept medical treatment while trying to clean up his Airbnb apartment after a sex party—all in 20 minutes. There are a lot of layers within the work. For example, what does it mean to be a family when you're thousands of kilometers away? What do you do when you are away and something happens to your close family? But the main theme goes deeper than those things. It is about the idea that we love the best way we can, but not necessarily the best way we should.

You can buy your tickets via https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2022/films/science-around-us