Archief – Page 12 – Anne Verhoijsen

Saturday 19 of July

Last night a meeting was organized in LASA. The artist Candelerio and the curator Aurelie Sampeur have founded two years ago this communal Art project. The project was also part of the Havana Biennale last may. As an artist, working there you always are involved with the community in one way or the other. LASA is based in San Agustin really on the border of Havana. For my feeling it was the last step in starting up the filming for the Havana city portrait. On the top of all Geraldine succeeded yesterday finally to get my working permit. She really did a great job and spent yesterday two hours at the bank just to pay for two stamps…But anyway now I am free to film in the street and also the Cuban artist who are working with me are also protected in one way or the other. I hope now I can make without problems a beautiful one minute of the flags before the American embassy! On the meeting last night there was also Oscar Antun the curator of the dutch/flemisch art in the Museo National Belle Artes in Havana and also his wife who teaches philosophy on the university of Havana. And of course my colloquies’ and friends here: Gerladine Orta, Daniel Massip, Adrian Hartill, Yaima Bacallao. It was a very exciting evening, one thing to meet all these creative people and also that they meet each other. There were a lot of reactions on the city portraits of Cairo and Bagdad. One was very particular. It was from a cameraman who had covered all the wars Cuba had been in till the last one in Angola. He really found it very difficult and un true that there was even not one pistol appearing in this movie! For him it was not Bagdad it was not true. The only thing I would I wanted to comment was that Sattar Alsaadi who is responsible for the camera work just wanted to show us a different image from Bagdad then that we daily see on TV. Bagdad is a city where people dance and make music, go to school and work, to the market, fall in love go to bed and sleep. And he really succeeded in that. Never the less if you look well still you see the war. More in the second layer of the movie! Any way this all made the people of San Agustin so enthusiastic that they really like to participated in the movie about their home town Havana. So as everything worked out well we have a final presentation on 8-08-09 same place.

For more info click here:

Street pictures

Wednesday 15 july

This morning i am invited for the yearly ceremony of the students of the art departments. They told me that about 200 students would get their diploma.

Yesterday i had a an appointment on the Dutch embassy and they warned me just like Geraldine to behave very touristic with my camera as long as my visa is not changed in an artist visa. Otherwise I can have big problems before the work has even started. So Geraldine is still doing her best to get my status in my visa changed. Last night we visited two friends of Geraldine. It is a couple and he will also graduate. His name is Adrian hill and from origin he is from Peru. He will finished his study as the best student from abroad. His certificate has a golden touch. His girl fiend is now in the third year and her direction is editing. After the inauguration the students decided to go to ISA (instituto superior de art) it is a beautiful constructed place. Before the revolution it was a very expensive golf field. Castro changed everything except the pool and we enjoyed that today. Music some hidden bottles of rum and the pool and every body was very happy. It is the art university of Cuba. Arts, Music, and the film university is on another spot but connected with this place. The whole campus is designed in the shape of a women body. You only can see this from above. What I saw was that everything was round and fluid no hard edges very smooth. Very special places to study I think. I thought it would be a great idea to have a change for three months with students from the art school in Holland. In Holland the school and everything is in the middle of the society and here you live and work in a beautiful constructed environment. Totally focused on your work and the other students. What I saw to day during the pool party was that there was a great openness and playfulness to wards each other. It really touched me.

Tuesday 13 of July

Tuesday 14 of July

Of course Habana is one big surprise for me. The story about the flags in front of the American Administration. Years ago they the American administration found a solution for the information which did not reach Cuba through the political system of the Cuban government. They just put a big screen on the walls of the their building and every evening when it became dark the world news appear there. So what was the next step of Fidel Castro? Just give a commission to an artist and he will find something. He just planted hundred’s of black flags with a white star in it just before this building. All that flags dancing in the wind towards the American administration. Already in daytime it has a big impact so how will it be in the night these black flags glimmering in the sunshine. In the evening glimmering of the light of the news what go’s on. Friends told me that it is news on the level on of Hollywood and that the American Administration just hires the building of the Swiss. Official it is the Swiss embasedy but they only use one level and the rest is in use by the Americans.

And the in old Havana I just ran into a public gymnastic class. Young children were just exercising in small groups. It looks like the basis rules of a fighting sport. It al happened in the neighbourhood of the Museo del Revolution. At the main square there was the oldest group they had beautiful shying pants on and where in the middle of the sunlight. The further of Cuba. Geraldine told me that nobody knows how the further will develop. She feels as she is living in a bubble complete disconnected from the rest of the world. She told me that it is forbidden for people to have internet connection at home only when you can prove that it necessary for your work ot when you are not Cuban and living here.

Monday 13 of july

Habana Monday 13 of July

I live since 16 hours in a very nice house in Vendado in Habana. It is casa particularise directed by two women. Madre Petronila ( mother) y Hija Rosabel ( daughter). I have a beautiful room with a veranda full of flowers and birds in the yard. Unfortunately this morning I wake up from a very screaming child only yelling for his mother. Now I write this I remember that I also heard ed it yesterday early in the evening. Let’s watch this and see what is going on.

It is hot here what I could expect but I think it will take me a couple of days to get used to it. This morning I had my first stroll out side. I discover that I live very close by the Cementerio Christobal Colon. I decided to drink my coffee just up posit the main entrance. At least i saw 10 cars with dead bodies driving on c.colon that runs straight through the cemetery. As i wanted to walk in they count me 5 pesos CUC what is about 4 euro so i decided to come back on a later moment with my video camera and hopefully my work permit. Geraldine the women whit whom I will work here is now trying to get one for me. It will be Just a good job for her because only 14 days ago she passed her graduation on the film academy. Her main subject is production. On my way home I discovered a small yard where at least 6 young boys where training their body and mind with weight halters. They where allowing that I took a picture of them hopefully they let me also do film them in a couple of days.

Habana

In a couple of hours i will leave for Habana. This the way how they pronounced it and write there in Cuba. I feel very excited it starts already with packing my suitcase.

Not any more my attention on how I can cover my body as I am used to going to the Middle East. It really feels as a change. In Cuba I work together with Geraldine Orta she is student t at the ICAIC (film academy) in Habana. Also I have a packet for the curator of the Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes. The foundation for Cultural Inventory based in Amsterdam has discovered seven years ago a lot of Dutch/Flemish paintings. Since then they are working together on this cultural heritage. The driving force after this foundation is Lia Gorter. So where I don’t take time for in Holland i will go there and see my Dutch roots. My travel feels very promising and i am sure i will get beautiful one minutes from Habana.

Baghdad in 24 minutes

To day I finished the work on the 24 one minutes together with Thomas. I think they are great and I have a little bit the feeling that I was there also for a short time. I just got the feeling that I was sable to sense something of the live in the city of Baghdad. And when you look well you see a big concrete wall placed there for stopping a car bomb. Young guys who celebrate a marriage from a friend. They are dancing and singing. It is almost a hypnotic crowd aware of the fragilely feeling of this moment.

Here there are some video’s that are not in 24 minutes sequence. I think within a month the 24 one minutes you can see on www.cityoneminutes.org

Baghdad movies

Meanwhile I’ve looked at the material that was shot earlier with astonishment and I realized how much I’ve gotten used to the images from the television. Sometimes I expect to see something violent and then it appears to be a friendly soldier who has his picture taken with the whole film crew! I’ve made a selection of many short films. Below you’ll see a picture of Sattar while he’s over there and the way he looks at the situation in Iraq.

Sattar write:

These will be the first to go online. The film paints a picture of the situation in Iraq of this moment (Baghdad). Media all over the world paint a picture of Iraq as a country which is always in war. That way people only get to see the negative sides of Baghdad. Through this film I would like to give a truer image of Baghdad of the moment. So it’s not only about the war… Baghdad is an dynamic city where so much takes place; it has a rich, ancient culture that we should not forget about! Despite everything that happens in Iraq, the country is slowly moving in the right direction. Maybe people will gradually start noticing this, as the impact of everything that recently happened in Iraq and the lives of many is huge. The dictators that ruled the country for decades have been extremely destructive en rebuilding the country takes a lot of time and effort. But despite everything the people have been through, they continue their lives… They keep hoping for a better life. I’ve filmed students going to their exams at the university for example, and people going to work, streets filled with cars, crowded markets, people getting married, celebrating. People going to the fair, the zoo, they make music, and so on, and so on. Maybe it’s not as luxurious as it is in Western countries, but these things tend to go step by step. The biggest trouble Iraq has at the moment are the supply of electricity and paving the roads. I’ve found it very special to work with you, Anne Verhoysen, you always stay young and energetic. You’re open to new experiences and adventures… in the same way you’re open to the reality of Iraq. I found it very sweet when you mentioned to me that if I would get into trouble I should hand over my camera’s and material. You emphasized that my safety was the most important thing. I did the best I could despite the difficult circumstances.

Om Kalthoum Cafe

Since last Friday Sattar is save in Holland with 16 hours on video material and since that time I am busy to get everything on my hard disk! Wondering myself about the images who appear on my desktop. This is also Baghdad a totally different Baghdad as what we see daily appear on our TV screen. People eating. Children playing football, images of the famous Almutanabi street. The Book street in Baghdad. Images of the famous Om Kalthoum café where photo’s on the wall show us the glamour’s past. Images of students passing their exams. Lot of unknown images of the daily of in Baghdad city. Some times a soldier crossing the picture …I think what happens now…nothing he is just enjoying a concert on the Tigres. I just don’t see all those pictures I know from the TV. Bleeding, jellying, and crying people. I see people despite everything enjoying their lives. I see also a recording of a begging woman. Her name is Mirjam. Sattar told me that she was a lawyer under the Saddam regime. She even had her office upside his palace. One day she was in jail and the next step was to tread her in a psychiatric hospital…after treatment she was very confused and now days this is how she has to get her daily bread. I wonder why there is not better taken care for her if everybody seems to know her story. That is what I want to search out. Thinking now perhaps there are too many of these Saddam Hoessein victims I don’t know? I would really like to source that out!

Stils out of video’s Baghdad.

Customs

Radio Sawa reported that the streets of Baghdad have recently witnessed a widespread jump in number of motorcycles, which have become one of the most practical solutions for the citizens in order to overcome jams and high fuel prices.

To day Sattar called from Baghdad. I was happy to hear his voice because in the mourning I tried already to reach him. To morrow he will travel to Istanbul.

? Should it be in the hand luggage or in the normal luggage? For me I always travel with my whole work in my hand luggage but in this case it is perhaps to dangerous. Sattar has had a lot of trouble during his shooting and he is afraid that at the last moment they will pick his material when he will passes the border. So we agree to put them in this circumstances in his normal luggage. Praise everything for the travel to morrow!

He also told that last night he went with his brother through whole the material. They labelled the tapes where it was and this kind of things. He filmed 16 hours. Image 16 hours of normal shooting from Baghdad not from a war reporter but from a Iraqi himself coming back after 17 years in his city and full of love for his country. Many thanks to his brother he was a great help. Also because he is knowing as a famous actor doors went open unexpectedly and he could arrange great places o film. Friday I go to see him and pick up the material.

To day Sattar called from Baghdad. I was happy to hear his voice because in the mourning I tried already to reach him. To morrow he will travel to Istanbul.

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