Stichting Multimediale Cultuur (SMC) works together with the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE), among others. The Land of Maas and Waal is one of the post-war reconstruction landscapes that the RCE is highlighting. Five stories ‘from above and below’ from that part of the river area have been included. The other five episodes are about other subjects that played a role in the Dutch countryside.
In Bewogen Landschap, a collection of historical information films distributed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture in the post-war period (1945-1985) was studied.
Still uit de film Van oud naar nieuw (1957)
Bewogen landschap
A cultural-historical study of the film practices of the Ministry of Agriculture (1945-1985)
Veer, P.M.
Thesis 2020
A film editing programme uses a timeline that consists of several image and sound lines.30 The first V1/A1 lines contain the selected fragments from the oral history interview. The fragments that are not relevant to the subject are removed. Next, the viewed historical agricultural information film is shown on the V3/A3 lines. The V1/A1 lines synchronise what the participant said while watching the film. The film and interview lines are thus connected. On the intervening V2/A2 lines, displaced fragments from the oral history interview are used as a new commentary voice that the filmmaker deems appropriate for the historical agricultural information film. Editing is a process of fitting and measuring, whereby the storyline of the archive film is leading in this case.
The last phase of the editing was the adjustment of the picture frames, the improvement of the picture and sound quality, the addition of written text and music fragments in order to create an attractive audiovisual product for an interested audience product for an interested audience. The test editing of the oral history film was completed.
Maptour Oral history Historical fruit farming
maptour stories: 20
number of interviews: 28
Starting year: 2009
Publication:
number of stories: 27
In 2009, trained volunteers conducted extensive interviews with fruit farmers and farm workers in the river region (oral history). With the consent of the interviewees, the conversations were taped and typed out word for word, after which an easily readable story was written. The project is an activity of the Hoogstamfruit Centre and the Gelderland Foundation for Landscape Management (SLG). The aim of the project was to record the history of fruit cultivation, particularly of standard orchards, while it is still possible. The volunteers were guided by SLG.
Twenty-eight interviews were held with fruit growers and workers in fruit cultivation. The stories are about how things used to be in the standard orchard up until about the 1960s. They are about the place of the orchard in the farm, about seasonal work, about pruning, grafting, spraying the trees and about picking the fruit. The stories also give an overview of all the varieties grown in those days. They are personal stories about their own memories and experiences. Together with the photos that have been taken, the stories give a nice picture of how life in the fruit growing business used to be.
Many of the memories belong to the past. Over the past decades, the situation in fruit growing has changed dramatically. High-growing trees have been replaced by low-growing trees and bushes. The pesticides used have been banned and most of the old fruit varieties have disappeared. To stop the decline of the remaining standard orchards and to keep old varieties alive, the Steunpunt Hoogstamfruit was founded.
Van Hoenderik tot Heerepeer is about historical fruit cultivation in the river area and contains stories about daily life in and around orchards. The booklet contains 27 stories from interviews with farmers and farm workers from eight river region municipalities about the history of standard orchards. This has yielded stories about yellow Californian porridge, poverty and prosperity in fruit growing, mealy Notary apples, hard work in the four seasons and, of course, cherry picking. The project of which this booklet is the final result, was made possible thanks to the support of Steunpunt Hoogstamfruit and its member municipalities: Geldermalsen, Buren, Druten, Beuningen, West Maas and Waal, Zaltbommel, Culemborg and Maasdriel.
