The fainthearted cigar trader Ducker keeps himself quiet during World War II. That changes when parachutist Dorbeck lands in his backyard. It turns out the parachutist bears a remarkable resemblance to Ducker. Ducker follows Dorbeck blindly, becomes involved in the Dutch resistance and soon starts...
A self-portrait of the Van der Elsken family, with his heavily pregnant wife Gerda in the lead role. She is expecting their second child, and Van der Elsken portrays her in a kind of free cinema style in her everyday surroundings, in the living room of their house in Amsterdam’s Nieuwmarkt...
An entire summer, van der Elsken walked through Amsterdam an filmed in the same manner as he used to shoot his photos, strolling through the city centre and making contact with people that fascinated him. It became hís portrait of the city and its inhabitants.
A filmic portrait of the Australian visual artist Vali Myers, whom Dutch photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elksen got to know in post-war Paris. With Myers, Van der Elsken shot his photo story LOVE ON THE LEFT BANK.
BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city...
For the exhibition Dylaby, the museum’s director Willem Sandberg and artist Jean Tinguely transformed the Stedelijk into a huge labyrinth. The film follows a tour of the exhibition in which the viewers have to actively participate in this DYnamisch LABYrint. Van der Elsken walks through the...
A collage of autobiography, reflections on previous work and the photographer in action. Van der Elsken tells us that he’s working on a photo book about life, from the cradle to the grave, about how people are: physical, sensuous, naked. He takes the time to show us a selection from the thousands...
As part of the celebrations for 100 years of Amsterdam’s Vondelpark in 1965, the Vondelpark was transformed into a massive sculpture garden under the direction of Stedelijk Museum director Sandberg. 25 epic artworks by well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore,...
Handen (Hands) is an experimental documentary film by Dutch photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elsken. the film is a moving and poetic observation of how hands play an integral part in human life, from birth to death.
Famous Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken, suffering from prostate cancer, shares his thoughts predominantly on his illness, but also on his life and work.
In the seventies, Waterlooplein square and the Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood faced a great deal of demolition in relation to the construction of Amsterdam’s new opera house, the ‘Stopera’, and the metro system. Van der Elsken did a lot of filming in and around Waterlooplein and its centrepiece,...
In 1960, Utrecht University took over the Studio for Electronic Music from Philips. In this studio in Utrecht, composers and artists worked on their own compositions. In 1961, Jan Vrijman made a film about Karel Appel, De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel, and Appel himself made a musical composition...
Short film about the mare of Ed van der Elsken who is covered by a stallion from the neighborhood. The horse is getting thicker and brings a foal into the world. The foal soon runs through the meadow. A few recordings have been made with a 'fish eye' lens, so that the image is distorted (source:...
Report of the last market day on the old Waterlooplein in Amsterdam. Traders and visitors are interviewed and van der Elsken provides the commentary to the events.
