Shangri-La, Paradise under Construction
Documentary
Directors: Mirka Duijn & Nina Spiering
World premiere at IDFA, International Film Festival in Amsterdam, 2022, in competition for Best Dutch Documentary.
A travelogue through Shangri-La; the fictitious paradise from the classic novel Lost Horizon (1933). Twenty years ago a Tibetan tourist spot in China presented scientific proof that it was the real Shangri-La. In her search for the truth behind the supposed evidence the filmmaker excavates layers of fact and fiction of the area. What words and images have attached themselves to facts? How do stories come into being and how do they shape reality?
Read Modern Times Review about the film:
“In their film Shangri-La, Paradise under Construction, directors Mirka Duijn and Nina Spiering reconsidered the most basic premises of documentary filmmaking – truth, evidence, and interpretation.”
“Even if the fantastic nature of Shangri-La might indicate that this documentary will be about fantasy, it is not. The key theme of Shangri-La, Paradise Under Construction, is the reality and the mysterious ways of its construction.”
A travelogue through Shangri-La; the fictitious paradise from the classic novel Lost Horizon (1933). Twenty years ago a Tibetan tourist spot in China presented scientific proof that it was the real Shangri-La. In her search for the truth behind the supposed evidence the filmmaker excavates layers of fact and fiction of the area. What words and images have attached themselves to facts? How do stories come into being and how do they shape reality?
Read the IDA-review:
“A film that richly explores the creation of meaning from different perspectives that infuse the project of “paradise under construction,” and leaves viewers with hard questions to ask themselves about exoticization and power.”
“A film that richly explores the creation of meaning from different perspectives that infuse the project of “paradise under construction,” and leaves viewers with hard questions to ask themselves about exoticization and power.”
Read Modern Times Review about the film:
“In their film Shangri-La, Paradise under Construction, directors Mirka Duijn and Nina Spiering reconsidered the most basic premises of documentary filmmaking – truth, evidence, and interpretation.”
“Even if the fantastic nature of Shangri-La might indicate that this documentary will be about fantasy, it is not. The key theme of Shangri-La, Paradise Under Construction, is the reality and the mysterious ways of its construction.”
International Sales:
Journeyman Pictures
Produced by:
De Productie (NL),
Film Kreatörerna (SE),
Studio Kimmo (NL)
Funded by
Dutch Film Fund,
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
Swedish Film Fund.
Watch the teaser.
Listen to an interview with Mirka Duijn on Opium Radio (in Dutch)
Reviews in Dutch Newspapers:
NRC Newspaper ︎︎︎︎
Volkskrant ︎︎︎
Fries Dagblad ︎︎︎︎
Telegraaf︎︎︎︎
Parool
Trouw
Filmkrant
Interview in the Dutch Film Newspaper: Filmkrant
Journeyman Pictures
Produced by:
De Productie (NL),
Film Kreatörerna (SE),
Studio Kimmo (NL)
Funded by
Dutch Film Fund,
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
Swedish Film Fund.
Watch the teaser.
Listen to an interview with Mirka Duijn on Opium Radio (in Dutch)
Reviews in Dutch Newspapers:
NRC Newspaper ︎︎︎︎
Volkskrant ︎︎︎
Fries Dagblad ︎︎︎︎
Telegraaf︎︎︎︎
Parool
Trouw
Filmkrant
Interview in the Dutch Film Newspaper: Filmkrant
Land of Change
Documentary
Land of Change, the Zeeland Archives Project (2013)
Directors: Mirka Duijn & Nina Spiering
What is it like to live in a region where everything is changing? How do you deal with the loss, but also with the new gains? A collage of portraits of inhabitants of West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen amidst the marches, mudflats and the ever-present wind.
A film made for the Zeeland Museum. It is part of their ‘Islands Archive Project’, eilanden.net. The museum asked inhabitants of Zeeland to make films about aspects of or objects from/in Zeeland that they would like to be ‘remembered forever’. The films were stored in the Islands Archive.
The purpose of this request was to get a gestalt view of the present-day cultural identity of Zeeland. As we watched these films, we asked ourselves: are the subjects filmed by the participants ‘remembered’ by being added to the archive? Can you glean any knowledge about the present-day cultural identity of Zeeland from it? We wanted to know if we – as filmmakers using our ‘film language’ – could restructure and (re)visualise the contents of the archive in order to gain a deeper understanding of those contents. To achieve this, we took the films from the Zeeland archive as a base for a new narrative. Some of the found footage is used as-is, but most of it is repurposed around recurring themes. This new narrative consists of several portraits of inhabitants of Zeeland. We asked ourselves: why do they want their memories to be remembered forever?
More information about the film:
West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is a very secluded part of the Netherlands. It is not connected to the Netherlands by land, you can only get there over water or through a tunnel, and you have to pay for both options. Inhabitants of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen speak of ‘the Dutch’ as if they are from another country. The region even has it’s own flag and anthem. Over centuries this area has been in constant change. The geography, the sea and the constant battle against the seawater dictated most of the changes.
Nowadays the changes in the region are of a different kind. The geography still plays a big part in it though: just as in many other secluded area’s in Europe, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is rapidly changing because of macro-economic changes. A lot of old industries are dying. For ages most inhabitants were farmers and fishermen. But now the fishing industry hardly exists anymore; it disappeared within the last 20 years. Next to that a lot of farmers are leaving the region as a result of the expansion of farms. Finally there is an enormous ‘brain drain’ going on. Young people leave, never to return: there is no work for them in the area. As a result the population is aging rapidly. These changes have been going on for years, but at this moment the inhabitants feel as if these changes are gaining momentum. They are right: the municipality changed its policy and therefore changes are accelerated.The government tries to deal with the problems by focusing on a new industry: tourism. Polders are dug out to give space for artificial lakes and grand marina’s.
The inhabitants of the area are in the midst of this change: a lot is gone already, but new things haven’t started yet. They are in a vacuum between the old and the new. They are holding their breath while waiting for the tourists to come. This film is a poetic collage of portraits of inhabitants of the area. Among them, for example, skipper Jaap Albrechtse (63), who retires from his work and sails his ship to Africa. And the 22-year-old Mariëlle Notebaart. At workdays you can find her behind the counter of the Texaco gas station. During festivities she has got an other job though: she is elected to be the towns’ beautiful ‘Shrimp Princess’, a new invention of the small fishing industry in Breskens to attract tourists to their town. Another character is Foort Lokerse (59), the head of the fish auction. He wants to turn his fish auction into a Fish Experience for tourists for whom he will place a ship on the roof of his building; it will be his own fish theme park. He hopes it will save the identity of Breskens as a fishing town.
The portraits of Jaap, Mariëlle, Foort and many others form a mosaic. All portraits together form one story, the story about change in West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Sound and music are very important elements in this film. Broeder Dieleman, a rising artist from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, made almost all the music for the film. His music, together with the sound of water, wind and seagulls, forms a base for the rhythm of the film.
A film made for the Zeeland Museum. It is part of their ‘Islands Archive Project’, eilanden.net. The museum asked inhabitants of Zeeland to make films about aspects of or objects from/in Zeeland that they would like to be ‘remembered forever’. The films were stored in the Islands Archive.
The purpose of this request was to get a gestalt view of the present-day cultural identity of Zeeland. As we watched these films, we asked ourselves: are the subjects filmed by the participants ‘remembered’ by being added to the archive? Can you glean any knowledge about the present-day cultural identity of Zeeland from it? We wanted to know if we – as filmmakers using our ‘film language’ – could restructure and (re)visualise the contents of the archive in order to gain a deeper understanding of those contents. To achieve this, we took the films from the Zeeland archive as a base for a new narrative. Some of the found footage is used as-is, but most of it is repurposed around recurring themes. This new narrative consists of several portraits of inhabitants of Zeeland. We asked ourselves: why do they want their memories to be remembered forever?
More information about the film:
West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is a very secluded part of the Netherlands. It is not connected to the Netherlands by land, you can only get there over water or through a tunnel, and you have to pay for both options. Inhabitants of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen speak of ‘the Dutch’ as if they are from another country. The region even has it’s own flag and anthem. Over centuries this area has been in constant change. The geography, the sea and the constant battle against the seawater dictated most of the changes.
Nowadays the changes in the region are of a different kind. The geography still plays a big part in it though: just as in many other secluded area’s in Europe, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is rapidly changing because of macro-economic changes. A lot of old industries are dying. For ages most inhabitants were farmers and fishermen. But now the fishing industry hardly exists anymore; it disappeared within the last 20 years. Next to that a lot of farmers are leaving the region as a result of the expansion of farms. Finally there is an enormous ‘brain drain’ going on. Young people leave, never to return: there is no work for them in the area. As a result the population is aging rapidly. These changes have been going on for years, but at this moment the inhabitants feel as if these changes are gaining momentum. They are right: the municipality changed its policy and therefore changes are accelerated.The government tries to deal with the problems by focusing on a new industry: tourism. Polders are dug out to give space for artificial lakes and grand marina’s.
The inhabitants of the area are in the midst of this change: a lot is gone already, but new things haven’t started yet. They are in a vacuum between the old and the new. They are holding their breath while waiting for the tourists to come. This film is a poetic collage of portraits of inhabitants of the area. Among them, for example, skipper Jaap Albrechtse (63), who retires from his work and sails his ship to Africa. And the 22-year-old Mariëlle Notebaart. At workdays you can find her behind the counter of the Texaco gas station. During festivities she has got an other job though: she is elected to be the towns’ beautiful ‘Shrimp Princess’, a new invention of the small fishing industry in Breskens to attract tourists to their town. Another character is Foort Lokerse (59), the head of the fish auction. He wants to turn his fish auction into a Fish Experience for tourists for whom he will place a ship on the roof of his building; it will be his own fish theme park. He hopes it will save the identity of Breskens as a fishing town.
The portraits of Jaap, Mariëlle, Foort and many others form a mosaic. All portraits together form one story, the story about change in West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Sound and music are very important elements in this film. Broeder Dieleman, a rising artist from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, made almost all the music for the film. His music, together with the sound of water, wind and seagulls, forms a base for the rhythm of the film.
The film is on permanent display in the collection of Het Zeeuws Museum.
Produced by: Zeeuws Museum, Serious Film, Studio Kimmo.
Press:
VPRO, DE AVONDEN
NPS, LIJN 1
PZC
PZC & OMROEP ZEELAND @ FILM BY THE SEA
Film & Philosophy Conference:
http://www.film-philosophy.com
Produced by: Zeeuws Museum, Serious Film, Studio Kimmo.
Press:
VPRO, DE AVONDEN
NPS, LIJN 1
PZC
PZC & OMROEP ZEELAND @ FILM BY THE SEA
Film & Philosophy Conference:
http://www.film-philosophy.com
Jan Bot
Filmmaking Bot
Jan Bot (2016)
Directors: Bram Loogman & Pablo Núñez Palma
Jan Bot was EYE Filmmuseum’s first robot employee. Jan Bot was a computer program that worked day and night to create experimental films that match early twentieth century footage with current trending events.
At Jan Bot’s website, www.jan.bot, it was possible to watch in real-time what Jan Bot was processing or preparing for its next movie.
Currently the site contains its complete collection of short films made by Jan Bot as well as a special section with notes on the research carried out by Jan Bot’s creators and guest writers.
At Jan Bot’s website, www.jan.bot, it was possible to watch in real-time what Jan Bot was processing or preparing for its next movie.
Currently the site contains its complete collection of short films made by Jan Bot as well as a special section with notes on the research carried out by Jan Bot’s creators and guest writers.
Jan Bot: bringing film heritage to the algorithmic age, is a co-production between EYE Filmmuseum and Stichting Modern Times.
Produced by:
Mirka Duijn
Link to the site: www.jan.bot
Linkt to the Metalog: Metalog.
Funded by
Creative Industries Fund
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
Produced by:
Mirka Duijn
Link to the site: www.jan.bot
Linkt to the Metalog: Metalog.
Funded by
Creative Industries Fund
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
The Industry
Interactive Documentary, VR, Podcast Series
The Industry (2017 - 2018)
Director: Mirka Duijn
The Industry is a transmedia project existing out of a VR Documentary, an Interactive Documentary, a Podcast Series and a TV Documentary.
The Netherlands is the number one drugs country in Europe. Weed is in the DNA of The Netherlands, coke enters the country through the harbours, and XTC is as Dutch as chocolate sprinkles is.
The question then is: How is it possible that in a regulated country like the Netherlands drug can be produced and traded on such a large scale? The Industry explores this phenomenon.
For The Industry weed growers, coke kingpins and drugs traffickers are being interviewed. Not as criminals but as entrepreneurs in a thriving industry where we never see or hear anything about. What made them choose to work in this industry? What makes them tick? How did their career develop? And how does a workday of a drug trafficker, coke lord or weet cutter look like?
The Netherlands is the number one drugs country in Europe. Weed is in the DNA of The Netherlands, coke enters the country through the harbours, and XTC is as Dutch as chocolate sprinkles is.
The question then is: How is it possible that in a regulated country like the Netherlands drug can be produced and traded on such a large scale? The Industry explores this phenomenon.
For The Industry weed growers, coke kingpins and drugs traffickers are being interviewed. Not as criminals but as entrepreneurs in a thriving industry where we never see or hear anything about. What made them choose to work in this industry? What makes them tick? How did their career develop? And how does a workday of a drug trafficker, coke lord or weet cutter look like?
Won a Peabody Award in 2018.
Won a FIVARS Award in 2019.
Special Mention at Prix Italia 2018. Nominated at IDFA 2018,
Nominated for Prix Europa 2018
Nominated for Prix Bohemia 2019
Produced by:
Corine Meijers,
Submarine Channel
VPRO
Read mere about the project here: www.vpro.nl/programmas/de-industrie.html
The broadcasts are also available as a podcast series via vpro.nl/deindustriepodcast.
Won a FIVARS Award in 2019.
Special Mention at Prix Italia 2018. Nominated at IDFA 2018,
Nominated for Prix Europa 2018
Nominated for Prix Bohemia 2019
Produced by:
Corine Meijers,
Submarine Channel
VPRO
Read mere about the project here: www.vpro.nl/programmas/de-industrie.html
The broadcasts are also available as a podcast series via vpro.nl/deindustriepodcast.
Article
In 2017 Mirka published an article on the development in collaboration with H. Koenitz:
Beyond The Timeline a Data-Driven Interface For Interactive Documentary
Abstract
In this paper, we present work on the data-driven interface for The Industry, an interactive documentary in development about the Dutch illicit drug industry. The motivation for the work was to provide a more complete overview of a highly complex matter using a form of interactive digital narratives (IDN).
As it is with many complex issues, news reports on illegal drugs in the Netherlands are mostly fragmented and reactive, which makes it difficult for audiences to gain a good understanding of the topic. The approach starts by obtaining big-data sets from police and media. On this foundation, a narrative interface will be design
ed. This paper reports on the iterative design approach, and interface metaphors, on the lessons learned and the current state of affairs. Our intent with this paper is to fuel a discussion on narrative representations of complexity.
Mirkastan — Mirka Duijn/ Proconsul Editions
± €75 (Antiquarian Booksellers) ︎ Add to Cart
| Mirkastan is a travelogue in real time, gleaned from Mirka’s twitter feed during a journey from Amsterdam to Tokyo via Serbia, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (sort of), and China in the Spring of 2009. The publication of the twitter feed is initiated and edited by Rosemary Sheridan. It was published by The Proconsul Editions and launched at MOMA PS1 in New York. |
Hardcover, 376 pgs.
English/Dutch
2010
8.75 x 11.25 inches
Mirkastan in the New York Times approval matrix:
Excerpts:
“Like the individual frames of a film, a narrative is formed by tiny flickers of text, in which each is individually significant, but which combine to create an abstracted moving image of the experience being portrayed. Plus it’s funny and multilingual.”
Excerpts:
Page 51
We are off to (demolished village replaced by)
$50 mln Disneyland aka “Turkmenbashi
Land of Fairytales”. 4:46 AM Apr 29th from txt
Page 52
The dead silence of the park is rather eerie, people having fun with the sound turned off. #at Ashgabat. 5:50 AM Apr 29th from txt”
Page 55
Someone was hitchhiking in the middle of the desert holding an enormous freshly caught fish in his hands. 3:03 AM Apr 30th from txt
Page 107
Mr. Goodayberg’s (yes that is phonetic) house is cute. The fur on the toilet seat is a bit weird though. #at Cholpon-Ata 10:18 AM May 11th from txt
Page 278
I couldn’t sleep without the curtains.
There was a huge storm. 10:45 AM May 22nd from txt
Page 279
Then I discovered huge bloodstains on the wall. Streams of blood were hidden under the table.10:46 AM May 22nd from txt
Page 282
Or they forgot to clean those
beneath the table.10:47 AM May 22nd from txt