Private Project

Water-Dessert

Water-Dessert (32' ) is a poetical, musical documentary about the Zuiderzee flood of 1916 in Waterland. With richly available archive material, carefully collected personal stories and specially composed music by top musician Jeroen Zijlstra and emerging talent Thomas Geerts. The music is performed live in meaningful places in the landscape. You experience the storm with trumpet sounds over the water and with music with lyrics based on personal stories and events from the time of the flood.
Actual inhabitants of Waterland bring the flooding to life with their stories from all over the Waterland area, sitting on an antique chair in the landscape.
It has been 100 years since the dykes broke in ten places in Waterland and the area was flooded for five months. Water-Dessert is created in the context of the commemoration year 2016, one hundred years after the flooding. Water-Dessert is broadcast by various dutch broadcasters and musea throughout the Netherlands.

  • Miranda van der Spek
    Director
  • Stichting CineMusica
    Producer
  • Esther Velthuis
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Water-Woestenij (32')
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    32 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Netherlands
  • Country of Filming:
    Netherlands
  • Language:
    Dutch
  • Shooting Format:
    HD
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • Stichting CineMusica
    Distributor
    Country: Netherlands
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Miranda van der Spek

Curriculum Vitae - Miranda van der Spek
Date of birth: 22 - 7 - 1962 Dutch nationality
Education
University of Amsterdam (UvA): Visual Anthropology / Ethnomusicology
Specialization: music / migration, diversity / Latin America & Africa
Thesis: ‘paper’ and film: “The Devil’s Horn”, about the role of music bands in the patron saint festivities in the Bolivian highlands

Since 1994, Miranda van der Spek works as a visual anthropologist, an independent filmmaker and musician (tubaplayer). She makes documentaries, experimental films, video-clips and video recordings of music and theatre performances for museums, non-profit organizations, government agencies and cultural institutions. Since the last years Mirandas is also involved in making video- poetry performances with live interaction between music and image. Besides Mirandas also develops cross-cultural educational projects about film and music for schools.
Clients include Tropical Museum of Amsterdam, Ethnographic Museum of Leiden, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ for Contemporary Music, KNAW/University, ILAM, Rhodes University Grahamstown. Films have been shown at festivals and in prominent museums and were broadcasted by the NPS, WDR, Arte and by provincial broadcasters.

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Director Statement

My aim is cross-cultural storytelling. Stories that touch, inspire or hold a mirror. I try to use the power of music and film to connect people from different cultures.
I am the author of films such as Worth Repeating, about music of the Ouldémé in Cameroun, made as openings film of the World Minimal Music Festival in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ of Amsterdam and Traveling Music, three documentaries about the accordion, the ukelele and brass instruments, made for the exhibition Music World, Tropical Museum, Amsterdam.

In recent years I have completely focused on making films in which music plays a crucial role. Films about music and musicians, but also films such as Water-Dessert, in which the music is a leitmotiv that guides the audience through the film. With compositions written especially for the film that were shot in unconventional places in nature and with texts that deal with the subject.

Besides I make experimental films with artists and musicians. Free improvisations in which I also use the cine-trance way of filming. I enjoy a lot this free exploring and improvising.