Gijs Roozen

The tragicomic tableau vivant documentary "How shall we comfort ourselves." explores the endless human search for meaning. Using repurposed church buildings as the theater and everyday events as the play, we take a step back and observe humanity's absurd ways of dealing with life. From hardcore parties to yoga sessions, and from a morning mass to a gym. Hopeful coping-mechanisms we use to escape the emptiness of life. Captured within the walls of that which used to provide us with fixed frames of reference and collective meaning: the church.

Heen En Weer (Back And Forth) is a short documentary about loss, loneliness and silence. In this documentary I tell the story of a ferryman that just lost his wife. Instead of seeking diversion with other people he tries to embrace silence and solitude. For this documentary I applied elements of slow cinema trough long static wide takes. With this I hoped to let the audience experience a similar feeling solitude or loneliness.