Historian R.L. Schuursma interviewed filmmaker Gerardus Johannes (Jan) Teunissen (1898-1975) in 1964 and 1965. Teunissen was a National Socialist filmmaker in the Netherlands. In 1933 he made his first feature film, Willem van Oranje. This was the Netherlands’ first sound film. The interviews therefore provide information about Dutch film history and the role of National Socialism and collaboration during World War II.

On August 27, 1940, Teunissen joined Anton Mussert’s National Socialist Movement (NSB). Soon he became head of the NSB’s Film Service. His star rose quickly and it was not long before he was the most powerful man in the Dutch film world during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945 he was leader of the Film Gilde, a part of the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer. This was a German institution to which all artists, architects, writers, etc. had to be affiliated in order to work. As chairman of the Rijksfilmkeuring, Teunissen was the personification of collaboration within the Dutch film industry.

After the Allied victory, Teunissen was imprisoned from November 5, 1945 to May 10, 1948. He was subsequently banned from working in the Dutch film industry for ten years.

An article about Teunissen and the first Dutch sound film

The interview with Piet van der Ham (born 1910) was made as part of Renate Bergsma’s research internship at SFW in 1995. It was incorporated into her doctoral thesis “Do you speak film? The Catholic filmmaker Piet van der Ham, Amsterdam (doctoral thesis Cultural Studies, UvA), 1995. Under the same title she published an article in the 1994 Yearbook Stichting Film en Wetenschap – Audiovisual Archive, Amsterdam: Stichting Film en Wetenschap, 1995, p.75-101.

Piet van der Ham has been characterized as a Catholic filmmaker. His “discovery” in 1936 as an amateur filmmaker by the filmmaker Otto van Neijenhoff was the impetus for a whole series of commissioned films from that angle. He was theoretically influenced by the Catholic ‘film pope’ Janus van Domburg and the writer-poet A.J.D. van Oosten and more generally by the aesthetic views of the Filmliga. With Van Oosten, he founded the Catholic film group Kafilgro. The amateur film Redt Volendam, made by Piet van der Ham and Goof Bloemen, can be found on the website of Beeld & Geluid.

During World War II he experimented with feature films, together with his friend Alfred Mazure, and worked as a photographer for the Internal Armed Forces. Over the years, he made many film journalistic contributions to newspapers such as De Tijd and de Maasbode and was associated with film magazines such as Filmfront and Filmforum. He was also involved in the Catholic Film Censorship Board. After the war, he made a number of films for the KVP, including the well-known De Opdracht (1956). He also made several corporate films and produced news items for Polygoon and the NTS. Finally, Van der Ham taught film and photography in The Hague.

Ernst Radius talks with Bob Bertina (1914-2012) about Dutch Catholics’ attitudes toward film after 1945. The relationship between Christians and film has never been unequivocal. Bertina was a film critic for the Volkskrant for many years, a member of the editorial board of several (Catholic) film magazines and involved in Katholieke Film Actie (KFA). In particular, it discusses the Catholic film censorship, organized in the Katholieke Film Centrale (KFC), in which leading film critics – besides Bertina Charles Boost and Janus van Domburg – played a role. Between 1945 and 1979, Bertina wrote about films in the Volkskrant. In his early days, film was still considered immoral by the Catholic Church. When the Volkskrant became a progressive newspaper in the late 1960s, Bertina welcomed it. He always sided with art.

Bertina explains the not unproblematic relationship between film criticism and film censorship. The premise endorsed by both ‘camps’, ‘work for good film’, was given different interpretations because the former reasoned primarily from an aesthetic point of view and the latter took a primarily moralistic stance. Bertina refers with approval to the brochure Film en moraal [Film and morality], which the progressive ‘filmpater’ Jac. Dirkse once wrote and in which he advocated, among other things, an independent relationship between Catholic film critics and the Catholic film censors.

Also see this article by Bertina’s that dives into Dutch film critique and Catholicism after the Second World War

In the interview, Sieburgh talks about his experiences as a sound engineer. In 1942, together with Koos Groeneveld, he founded the Siegro sound studio in Rotterdam. During the war years, his duties included acting as a “listening post” after radios had to be turned in in the Netherlands and working on (repairing) secret transmitters. Eventually he ended up in the circles of the resistance organization LO-LKP. In 1944 he had to go into hiding for some time. In the last war period and during the liberation, he worked for Radio Herrijzend Nederland. Among other things, he drove around in a report truck of the Internal Armed Forces in order to make as many recordings as possible.

After the war, Sieburgh and Groeneveld continued to expand their sound engineering business, working for professional theater and broadcasters, “doing” radio advertising, and providing sound for films, among other things. For example, Sieburgh made the sound recordings for several documentaries by Herman van der Horst, including ‘t Schot is te boord. In the late 1960s, the company came to an end and Sieburgh continued on his own. Technical matters frequently come up in the interview.

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.

On Nov. 2, 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was murdered on the beach of Ostia near Rome. Pasolini was a (leftist) public intellectual and controversial director. His work is characterized by many themes that are also found in Gerard Reve’s books, such as the relationship between (homosexual) sexuality and the Catholic faith, the relationship between violence and truth, and the importance of irony and of death.

On the occasion of the documentary Wie de waarheid zegt moet dood, Philo Bregstein organized four interviews about Pasolini’s life. This documentary does not aim to be a biography of Pasolini. Rather, the documentary deals with some themes that helps us understand the background of his life, work and death: his poetry, homosexuality, membership in the Italian Communist Party (PCI), the relationship to his family and the form and themes of his films. This documentary was broadcast by VARA on August 31, 1981.

The movie has also been released in England (Argos Films/British Film Institute) under the title Whoever says the truth shall die. A film about Pier Paolo Pasolini. It can be viewed on youtube.

The following people were interviewed:

• Bernardo Bertolucci, a famous film director who took his first steps on the path of filmmaking thanks to Pasolini. Many of Pasolini’s themes recur with Bertolucci.
• Laura Betti, figured as an actress in some of Pasolini’s films. She also reads some excerpts from his poetry in the interviews.
• Maria-Antonietta Macciocchi, writer, was for some time editor of the weekly of the Partito Comunista Italiano (the Italian Communist Party), in which Pasolini wrote columns at her request. The columns were mainly about sexuality, religion and other matters “beyond” the rational, much to the displeasure of the party leadership.
• Alberto Moravia, the famous Italian writer. He was friends with Pasolini

The interviews with Bertolucci, Betti and Moravia are in Italian. The interview with Macchiocci is in French.

The interviews were made on behalf of Bregstein’s television film Jean Rouch en zijn camera (1978) about French filmmaker and ethnologist Jean Rouch (1917-2004). Rouch was an idiosyncratic director, often starting a new film without a clear approach. Initially, he recorded as much material as possible with uninterrupted shots. Then this realistic material was incorporated into a film, which characterized the cinéma verité. Rouch spent most of his life in Niger.

In the interviews, Rouch talks, among other things, about his insights regarding film, the use of different types of cameras and about his work at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. He also tells Bregstein, as they drive through Niger in a car, about the country and his contacts with it. In addition, Bregstein speaks with several Nigerian individuals who have worked with Rouch.

The following individuals were interviewed:

• Jean Rouch
• Moustapha Alassane (1942-2015) and Oumara Ganda (1935-1981), both filmmakers from Niger. Ganda also starred in Jean Rouch’s famous film Moi, un noir.
• Inoussa Ousseini (1949-2021), filmmaker and staff member of the audiovisual department of the Institut de Recherches et Sciences Humaines (IRSH) in Niamey, Niger. Rouch was long the head of this department.
• Boube Gado, belongs to the department of archaeology and prehistory of the IRSH
• Michel Keita, belongs to the socioeconomics department of the IRSH
• Dioulde Laya (1937-2014), sociologist, attached to the Centre d’études linguistiques des traditions orales
• Djingarei Maiga (1939-now), was employed as a cameraman at the IRSH
• Idrissa Meiga, transported film crews with his prau
• Damouré Zika, Lam Ibrihama Dia and Tallou Mouzourane, they formed the film collective DaLaRouTa with Rouch. Together they made the films Jaguar, Petit à Petit and Cocorico.

The interviews are in French.

The interviewees talk about the time they worked at the film production company and laboratory Triofilm, founded in 1946 by Jo de Haas, Theo Cornelissen and Paul A.J. Wijnhoff.

Interviewees:

• Herman Greven (born 1933) worked at Triofilm as a lab assistant from 1948, before moving to the
  Cinetone studios, and still later found employment in film management at the Netherlands Film Museum (NFM).
• Peter Jonen (born 1927), after years at Polygoon, was employed as a lab assistant at Triofilm from 1953 to 1960. Via several other production companies, including Joop Geesink, he eventually joined the Utrecht Film and Science Foundation (SFW) in 1971 as a cutter.
• Piet van Strien (b. 1929) started out as a jack-of-all-trades at Triofilm in 1948, but soon started working in the laboratory and from 1953 (Watersnoodramp) he handled the camera. In 1959, he left the company and continued as a free-lance filmmaker, including for British Visnews.

Interviewers: Simone Brouwers and Bert Hogenkamp

The interviews were made for Brouwers’ and Hogenkamp’s filmography Triofilm 1946-1978. Film production company and laboratory, Amsterdam: Stichting Film en Wetenschap (SFW working edition no.4), 1994.

The interviewees talk about the time they worked at the Haarlem film production company Multifilm. During the interview with Gerdes, his wife is present in the background. Van den Berg, trained as a lawyer, joined Multifilm in January 1939 as a secretary and procurer. She also did “odd jobs” such as printing and projecting. Gerdes was a cameraman and screenwriter. He became a permanent employee in 1948, although before that he had made commissioned films for the Haarlem company as a free-lancer. Rouw (b. 1914), who by his own admission had originally wanted to become a ship’s cook, was hired in 1929 as an errand boy by Multifilm founder J.C. Mol. He developed into a cameraman and laboratory assistant. In 1958 they all joined the newly established television production company Cinecentrum in Hilversum, which merged Multifilm, Polygoon and Profilti.

Interviewees:

• Zus van den Berg
• Willem Gerdes
• Tjerk Rouw

It examines whether there has been a development in film criticism during the period in question, from a discussion of the form of film-making to a criticism that discusses film on the basis of its content. The discussion includes the influence of the Dutch Film League, the relationship between film criticism and social developments and the Dutch film-critical response to German anti-Semitic films during the Second World War.

The interviews with Bertina, Bredschneyder, Van der Ham, Huijts, Kok, Koolhaas, Koster, Lichtveld and Scholte were conducted as part of Barten’s research into Dutch film criticism from 1923-45.
On this subject Barten wrote Schrijven voor de prullenmand? A history of Dutch film criticism (1923-1945), Amsterdam (doctoral dissertation Contemporary History, VU University), 1987