Overgang/Menopause

Crossing Borders

A restless German woman lives with her dog in an old trailer close to the city of Amsterdam. Her life is an unstructured, nomadic existence. Wherever she is, there is always something missing and she always thinks that she could find it somewhere else.

Transit Levantkade

Stylised documentary portrait of the Amsterdam Levantkade area and the 'urban nomads' who in the late eighties sought refuge in this no-man's-land now cleared. The film tells the story of the Levantkade, a quay in Amsterdam's old doc area. In the twenties Levantkade was a gateway for Eastern European emigrants on their way to South America. In the eighties Levantkade became a haven for drop-outs, for foreigners and for homeless people who lived here on a different planet until the police came to clear the area for the wreckers. The film shows these 'urban indians' in documentary form, interspersed with archive material about immigrants, dating from 1926.

Farewell Pavel

Farewell Pavel takes place in two cities. In Rotterdam, we follow Russian reporter Alexei Petrov. He stays in a shabby hotel while investigating Russian ships that have been chained up and writes an article about trafficking in women. His contact with a Russian prostitute gets him into trouble when he tries to arrange a fake passport for her. While Alexei becomes entangled in a criminal web in the West, Alexei's 14-year-old son Pavel longs for his father in St. Petersburg and takes his first steps on the path of love. The events in both cities run almost parallel, but are told from different time perspectives. Over time, a shift occurs. For Pavel, who is on his way to adulthood, time passes more and more quickly, while for Alexei, who feels increasingly threatened, time seems to stand still.

Punt Uit - Schluss Aus - Full Stop

A sensitive, intimate and intriguing glimpse into the final days of the director's life companion. Rosemarie Blank follows her life companion very closely as, together, they make a film of his last days. In cinematographically fascinating scenes she manages to touch life in its most naked and pure form and delivers a tribute to a man who continued to fight for his life until the end, until his final decision to die of his own will.

Divided Earth

La terra in due means the earth of the landlords versus that of the peasants who actually cultivate it. This film uses evocative photogrphy and a dignified rhythm to depict the death of peasant culture. This fact is brought home by the super 8 footage shot ten years earlier. Blank's familiarity with the villagers and their unsselfconsciousness in front of the camera produce a high degree of authenticity in this account of culture of the 'mezzadria'.

Berliner Tagebuch

‘Where I am, I don’t want to stay. I want to stay where I’ve never been.’ Filmmaker Rosemarie Blank was born in Berlin, but has lived in various other places in the world. After returning to her native city, she wondered what it’s like for other people to live outside their motherland. In this diary, she interviews people whom she literally met in the street: her Kurdish newsvendor, who apart from his busy trade has a second job with the German railways, a Lebanese hairdresser, a Turkish furniture seller. They talk about melancholy, longing, the struggle for existence and against discrimination and they show how they lead their daily life. The encounters are larded with observing shots of multicultural Berlin, particularly where diversity is most visible: the subway.

The Ants

​A young woman seeks solitude and peace by retreating to an old, isolated peasant house in Italy. Instead of finding tranquility, she becomes increasingly overwhelmed by her strange surroundings, the silence of inanimate objects, and the constant presence of insects.

Life With A Rubbish Heap

In Leven met de belt (Life With A Rubbish Heap), filmmaker Rosemarie Blank portrays with great empathy the residents of the Volgermeerpolder near Broek in Waterland in The Netherlands. They live with the physical and psychological consequences of a toxic waste dump on their doorstep.

De laatste dagen van het atelier Frans van de Staak

The importance of the Atelier as a meeting and working-place for independent or beginning filmmakers is highlighted in Last days of Studio Frans van de Staak a necrology of his films by Kees Hin (2002), which focuses mainly on Van de Staak's non-naturalistic style of directing actors.

Lost in Time

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.