DOKUARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
10.-27. Oktober 2019
Het Voorval - Armando en de mythe / The Myth of Armando
A German soldier is stabbed to death by a boy whom he had chased into a forest: the film’s title “Het Voorval” (The Incident) alludes to this dark event – fragment of a memory or myth – which is at the center of the work of Dutch artist “Armando” (1929-2018). Under this pseudonym, the extraordinarily productive, multifaceted painter, sculptor, writer, and poet became a prominent figure of postwar art in the Netherlands. Filmmakers Swierstra and Minneboo work with the fascination emanating from the enigma “Armando” without succumbing to it. Instead they confront the reluctant artist with the mythical image he created for himself. The more blurred the border between the perpetrator and the victim becomes and the closer the camera looks for answers in Armando’s eyes, the fiercer the artist fights for the autonomy of his art. At death’s door, Armando appears at once vulnerable and brassbound. Like detectives in a murder mystery, the filmmakers gather evidence – Armando’s paintings, his glances, and words – to reconstruct his uncanny story.
(sth)
Sjors Swierstra und Roelof Jan Minnebo
Sjors Swierstra (1982) studied cultural history in Groningen and wrote his thesis on Armando’s literary work. In 2009 he directed his first short documentary. His TV length documentary "The World According to Monsieur Khiar" (2015) – a film about former war-photographer Jeroen Robert Kramer – was nominated for a Golden Calf for best short documentary (at the Netherlands Film Festival), for the Prix Europa Best TV Documentary Award and for the IDFA Dutch Doc Award. Sjors has worked as a curator for Museum Oud Amelisweerd (MOA) which housed the Armando collection.
Roelof Jan Minneboo (1965) is curator, script writer and script consultant for feature films. "Corn Island", which he wrote with Georgian director Giorgi Ovasjvili, won at the 2014 Karlovy Vary film festival and was on the 2015 Academy Awards shortlist. He also wrote the script for "The Gentle Indifference of the World", which was selected for the Un Certain Regard Cannes programme. "We zijn er" by Dutch artist Typhoon (nominated for an Edison) was also written by Minnebo, and he was part of the production of the music video in Cabo Verde, with DOP Reinout Steenhuizen, who is also attached to this project.
Yvonne Ploum (1963) - moderator of the film talk - studied teaching and art history. She was the director of the Armando Museum in Amersfoort and the Museum Oud Amelisweerd (MOA) which housed the Armando Collection. Yvonne Ploum published several times about the work of Armando. In 2015 she realized a monumental monography on Armando: Armando – Between Knowing and Understanding, NAI010, together with curator and writer Antoon Melissen. Yvonne Ploum is now director of the Heritage Academy in Amersfoort.