artistic approach

Jury Vision du Réel:
‘The jury is impressed by the virtuoso way in which the viewer is drawn into the moving world of the young protagonist in the film. The daring camerawork reinforces deeply felt emotions and conflicts. The combination of dramatic reality and lyrical imagination makes the film an almost transcendental viewing experience’
(Prix Vision du Réel, meilleur court métrage, Flying Anne, Catherine van Campen Pays-Bas, [link])

For Catherine van Campen making films is a way to slow down time, to see and say something in another language, it is a permission to linger and zoom in as long as possible on people and (seemingly unimportant) moments, ultimately in an attempt to better understand our complex world. The dancer in Cross-Cuts (2023), who hesitantly walks along the barrier tape, confused by so many rules, is like us at certain moments in life, and he may shed us a different light upon those moments. For Eternal Mash (2007), about the worldwide extinction of vegetable varieties, the vegetables are filmed outside the context of the vegetable garden, in a studio, depicted as exclusive, rare, unaffordable jewelry; just as what they have become. Looking for images and forms that fit a world that is more complex than it seems at first glance is at the core of Catherine van Campen’s work as a documentary filmmaker.

Together with producer Rob Maas, she recently co-founded cloudfilm, a small-scale production house for (experimental) documentaries, films and cross-disciplinary projects and collaborations.

filmography

coaching & scriptwriting

audio works

biography

Catherine van Campen lives and works in Amsterdam as an independent filmmaker. After studying History at the University of Amsterdam she started her career as a radio presenter and director of radio documentaries and radio plays. In 2003 she co-founded the audio production house Radiomakers Desmet, together with three other directors, with whom she directed, among many other things, a series about Olivier B. Bommel, a famous Dutch comic strip character, which was broadcast daily on the Dutch public broadcaster for three years and had hundreds of episodes. She was nominated for the Prix Europa and Prix Italia for best radio documentary or drama and Van Campen is still involved in the creation of podcasts and audio installations.

(co-founders Radiomakers Desmet Stef Visjager, Bente Hamel, Marije Schuurman Hess, radiomakersdesmet.nl)

After winning a major award (the IDFA Media Fund Prize 125.000 euro) for best documentary filmscript, that allowed her to make her first debut film Eternal Mash (2007), filmmaking also became a great passion. Van Campen achieved great success with her youth documentaries Drona&me (2009), about two Hindustani brothers, and Flying Anne (2010), about little Anne who has Tourette's syndrome. Drona&Me won several awards and was nominated for best short children’s film at the Berlinale 2009. Flying Anne was screened at more than 100 festivals internationally and won more than 20 prizes, including awards at renowned festivals such as Hot Docs and Vision du Réel. In addition to personal and intimate portraits such as Sterre (2014), Mother's Balls (2018) and Displaced Pieces (2020), van Campen also addresses broader social issues in her films such as Painful Painting (2011), about the taboo on the depiction of war violence in art, Garage 2.0 (2016) showing the sky-high workload in commercial organizations, told through the crisis in the car industry, Missie NS (2019) about the influence of image and marketing on the ins and outs of semi-governmental organizations, and Zaatari Djinn (2016) about growing children in the closed mini society of a refugee camp. Van Campen’s films have received numerous awards and all films have been shown at international film festivals. Around 2023 Van Campen founded Cloudfilm, a production company, together with Rob Maas.

In addition to being a director, Catherine van Campen also works as a coach for young filmmakers, a co-author on grant applications and she is a film advisor to various funds, including the NPO Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.