Otto van Neijenhoff and the Dutch film industry

Piet van der Ham (1910-2006) talks to his colleague the filmmaker Otto van Neijenhoff (1898-1977) about his films and about his relationships with other filmmakers and production companies, including Willy Mullens. This makes the interview historically relevant; both interviewer and interviewee played important roles in the Dutch film industry.

Van Neijenhoff learned the film trade in the early 1920s under Willy Mullens, a film pioneer. One of Mullens’ films was admitted to the Canon of Dutch Film. A few years later, Van Neijenhoff founded his own film company, IWA (Industrie, Wetenschap en Actualiteiten), renamed Filmproductie Otto van Neijenhoff in 1946. From 1925 to ’33, he was the regular commissioned filmmaker for the Vereeniging Nederlandsch Fabrikaat. Influenced by the ideas of the Filmliga, he ventured into several film experiments during the 1930s. After the war, he engaged primarily in commissioned work, including many corporate and regional films.

Van Neijenhoff also worked for third parties. For example, in the 1930s he worked as an (assistant) cameraman on such feature films as The Regiment’s Big, Rubber, Jonge Harten and the never-released Zomerzotheid, and made newsreel footage for the Dutch branch of the American Fox Movietone. Van Neijenhoff remained active into the 1960s; he made two documentaries about windmills – Los de vang and Wentelende wieken – and a number of provincial films commissioned by Esso Nederland. Van Neijenhoff was undoubtedly one of the most prolific filmmakers in the Netherlands.