Category Archives: movingdocumentaries

Documentary: Nuestra Sazón

Different countries have their own variations of an empanada, and in our documentary, we follow Siria Olivares Soto, a Chilean cook, as she explores her identity, memories, and her migration process through the process of making empanadas.

This documentary has been filmed through a series of interviews. By not using a voice-over, we attempt to create a sense of intimacy, where the viewer can feel as though they are in the same room as Siria and us, cooking while sharing conversation on the table.

The film follows a three-act structure that begins with the topic of food, then memory, and finally identity. We made the choice to specifically show her hands as she cooks, as this represents the act of cooking and being physically connected to one’s cultural background. Placing focus on the sense of touch, we portray the empanadas as a vehicle and mode of connection beyond the sight as the main sensorial approach.

Nuestra Sazón is not just a documentary about empanadas or about Siria’s personal story. It is an invitation to reflect on how memories are preserved and transmitted through everyday practices, especially cooking. Food, in this case, does not only nourish the body but also creates and preserves our identity: it connects us to our roots, to who we were, and to who we continue to be, even when we live in another country, speak another language, or use other cuisine and ingredients.

Created with the efforts of Constanza Lobos Campusano, Davila de la Court, Irene Ocampo Perez, Maite Gaztañaga Baggen, Nele Brinkmann, and Martin Viatour, under the supervision of Jeroen Boom, Marileen La Haije and László Munteán for the course Moving Documentaries.

Documentary: Het Heet Thee

By Talin de Jeu, Miriam Stuefer and Holly van Zoggel

Het Heet Thee originated from a shared interest in tea, gender, and the intersections of the two. With this documentary, we aim to dissect how mythologies surrounding tea and femininity are created and kept alive. By shooting images of the tea habits of ourselves and the people surrounding us, by filming artworks and china, and by collecting additional photographic footage from local archives and movie scenes, we search for intersecting and contradicting aspects of the personal, political and historical.

The documentary roughly follows the making process of tea: starting with ingredients, how they are grown and harvested, moving to the making of tea and the china it is consumed from, followed by the social aspects of drinking tea, and lastly its dregs. The focus on our own hands, shot on handheld phone cameras, emphasises our closeness to the subject but also the situatedness of our narrative. These images are intertwined with different types of archival material. This way, we wanted to underline the vast history and the physical and cultural contexts that all boil down into a single cup of tea. The images in the first chapter show people –  predominantly women – working on tea plantations. Even though tea is strongly connected to femininity, the power still lies with men, as  they are the ones judging the tea’s quality. We visualised this dichotomy between femininity and masculinity in our tea-culture with the two humorously named teas Decollethee and Theetosteron.

Although we do question the myths through our documentary, the style and nature of the film is subtler than if we had used a voiceover to explain our ideas. We chose this approach because we did not want to teach the viewer how gender(roles) and tea are intertwined. Instead, the documentary is a search for the parallels that constitute the myth, formalized in a way similar to the way myths circulate in our society: with subtlety but ever-present in its details.

The documentary Het Heet Thee was created in the BA course Moving Documentaries.

Documentary: Banden met Barrels

By Fenne van Beek, Jildou de Jong, Niko Oussoren, and Puck Gregoor

We, Fenne van Beek, Jildou de Jong, Niko Oussoren, and Puck Gregoor, are excited to present to you our short documentary, Banden met Barrels. It is a documentary created for the second-year course ‘Moving Documentaries’ as part of our bachelor’s program in Art and Cultural Studies at Radboud University. As four Dutch students, we wanted to shed light on bicycles, particularly student bicycles. Because where would the average student actually be without their bike? It may seem like a simple, ordinary object, and it is, but the bicycle is also a significant cultural phenomenon whose importance we often overlook. Bicycles are essential in Dutch student life for their practicality and reliability, despite their worn-out appearance. As will become evident in this documentary, the student bicycle can serve as a starting point for many conversations and two-wheeled journeys. We hope Banden met Barrels sparks nostalgia and prompts audiences to pause and appreciate the humble bicycle as more than just a mode of transportation, but as a symbol of freedom, community, and adventure.

The documentary Banden met Barrels was created in the BA course Moving Documentaries.

Documentary: Knuffels

By Rosa Floris, Lotte Lammers, Marta Ora, Laury van de Ven and Tim Wiesner

In Dutch, the word ‘knuffels’ holds a charming dual meaning, referring to both plush toys and hugs, and thus embodying a sense of comfort and care in a single term. Etymologically rooted in ‘knuffen’, meaning to bump or shove, the term ‘knuffels’ connotes a form of affection that entails both a gentle embrace and a playful nudge, driving home the idea of a push-and-pull, perpetually dynamic bond. This bond is at the center of our documentary, Knuffels, and explored through various interviews with Arts and Culture students of Radboud University. Knuffels pertains to the ambiguity of affection towards plush toys, and attempts to formulate an answer to the question: how do individuals attribute meaning to plushies within the context of ownership, and what psychological, emotional, and symbolic significance do these objects hold for their owners?

Knuffels aims to show truths; the audience is shown small aspects of the documentary’s construction, but not enough to betray the true extent of our involvement or to problematize the notion of truth. Instead, these few elements of construction work to disarm suspicion in the viewer and therefore aid in framing the contents of the documentary as truthful. The presentation of several voices, which at times contradict each other, serves this purpose. Subsequently, we have chosen to make fabric the common denominator in all shots and scenes, which vitalizes a soft aesthetic that fits, frames and harmonizes these oftentimes nostalgic sentiments expressed in the interviews.

As for the documentary in its entirety, the viewer could consider the footage a tapestry that we have carefully woven in collaboration with the interviewees, and from which we later cut and sewed together different pieces to make our final product – the visuals do not fabricate, the fabrics merely visualise. As a result, Knuffels quite literally embraces a storytelling predicated on multiplicity, be it in terms of lived experiences, perspectives, or the very essence of affection itself.

The documentary Knuffels was created in the BA course Moving Documentaries.

Documentary: Borrel

We are the makers of the short documentary ‘Borrel’ – Emily Hölz and Riikka Toropainen, Bachelor students at Radboud University from Germany and Finland. In 2021, we both came to the Netherlands for our studies and experienced many cultural differences when trying to settle in. Thus, when we had the chance to make our own documentary, in the second-year course ‘Moving Documentaries,’ we wanted to approach a topic that was familiar both to us and many like us. Thereby, our aim was to feel more at home, and integrated into the Dutch culture and lifestyle, whereby we hope to evoke this also in other internationals, who might feel lost in a city far away from home. Lastly, we hope that this documentary is interesting to Dutch people too, who might be curious about how internationals interact with and reinterpret their personal Culture and Pride.