Eliane Bots

The publication The Daughters, The Interpreters and The Family explores the ways in which people narrate conflict. It includes interview transcriptions, stills, drawings, poems, and an audio layer. 300 pages, edition of 300, full colour, published by: DOC EDITIOS

IDFA Campaign: including campaign video + series of 7 posters

‘In Flow of Words’ verbeeldt de tegenstrijdige positie van drie vertalers als menselijke radertjes in de gerechtelijke machine van het ICTY, werkend met dramatische getuigenissen van slachtoffers, verdachten en beschuldigden van oorlogsmisdaden in voormalig Joegoslavië.

In een donkere ruimte waarin een vertaalcabine centraal staat, vertellen de tolken Alma, Besmir en Nenad over hun werk voor het tribunaal. Videodocumentatie ondersteunt hun verhalen, maar de stem staat centraal in de performance. Zoals hij ook centraal staat in de ervaringen van deze essentiële radertjes in de justitiële machine.

A fairytale-like film in which five Dutch girls take the viewer on an imaginative journey through the memories and images they have of their parents’ experiences of the war in the former Yugoslavia. A war which the girls haven’t physically experienced themselves. The narratives are a combination of facts and imaginations, vague memories and detailed impressions, transferred from the parents to their daughters through conversations, listening in, silence and finding information on youtube. Resulting in a scattered image of a conflict present on the horizon of one's life. It is in the darkness, in the shadows, lit by mobile phones, where these narratives can unfold. While the girls listen back to their own stories, a mechanism similar to listening to a narrative shared by a parent, the viewer is invited to listen along and become part of the intimate spheres of their family homes. Distribution: Eye Experimental (Eye Film Museum Amsterdam) Contact: Edith van der Heijde EdithvanderHeijde@eyefilm.nl

THE BRICK HOUSE, 15.49 min. Swahili / English subtitles Two friends, Sapa and Hija, re-enact and re-tell short anecdotes of their lives. Coming from another country to The Netherlands, there is a quest for belonging and the (im)possibility to completely feel at home and relate to the world outside the apartment. The starting point of this film was an encounter with Sapa, who chose his friend Hija as his interlocutor in the process of making this film. Through extensive interviews with Sapa and Hija, acting exercises and spending the Sundays together, our encounters resulted in this short documentary film.

WE CAN'T COME FROM NOTHINGg 2014, 30.51 min. Polish / English with English subtitles The film concentrates on the influence of family histories on contemporary personal life. How are events which took place during previous generations influential today? How to deal with family history when every trace is lost or if is kept secret? The viewer meets seven characters who share their individual and personal story, together they show how history results in a diversity of narratives and experiences. The film focusses on a particular part of the Jewish / Polish history. Producer: POLIN Museum Warsaw

CONVERSATIONS Dutch spoken, English subtitles ‘Conversations’ shows the viewer a personal family archive. As the film develops it turns out that the objects have an extra meaning which refers to the Second World War.

THE KEEPER, Russian spoken, English subtitles, In the short film ‘The keeper’ Vadim Kostromenko guides the viewer through the filmarchive in Odessa. De surroundings, the city and the sea are connected to the archive and in an associative way the anecdotes are brought to life.

THE VISIONARY The installation 'The Visionary' is part of Workspace13, organized annually by Filmhuis Den Haag and BNG Bank. Workspace is dedicated to exploring the boundaries of film. Creative professionals throughout the Netherlands are invited to submit a proposal for a new installation that investigates the nature and operation of film. The installation 'The Visionary' is based on the fact that blind and visually impaired people miss the visual element in the experience of a room or when watching a film. Other elements, such as sound, become more important. This allows freedom to create an own imagination of the visual reality, which can turn everyday visual environments into places full of stories. When listening instead of watching a film, the viewer has to use its own imagination to create the visuals.

THE DOME & THE CONE OF SILENCE English subtitles, 'The cone of silence’ is an inverted cone-shaped region immediately above the antenna of a radio beacon in which signals are imperceptible. Just before the signal disappears into ‘the cone of silence’ the volume is stronger. In the short film ‘The dome & the cone of silence’ three men are followed. They visit the coast with great regularity. They each have different motives for visiting this area. The coast functions in the film as a place to be alone, reminiscing, daydreaming and longing for other worlds. The coast as a sanctuary, where the sound dissolves. Image, text and sound connect the coastal area to places elsewhere.

PERIGEE MOON, A FILM ON PAPER I made the publication "Perigee moon, a film on paper" (2012) in the context of the post-graduate program 'Document and contemporary art' at EESI, for the publication 'Le Cahiers du post-diplome'. It exists out of 18 pages with my photos and texts.

THE CAPTAIN AND THE BOY Russian spoken, English subtitles, In this short film, a father and a son cross a river several times. At the same time a story about a found dying bird and a dog unfolds. The river in the video turns out to have a deeper unexpected meaning in the end. The film consist out of moving images, animation and still images and is shot in color and black and white.

GULO Georgian spoken, English subtitles, 'Gulo' is a film that explores the line between death and life, visualising the theatrical happenings and settings surrounding burial rituals. Often death is presented as the ending of life, something feared by people. Contrary to this, Gulo shows the diverse approaches to death and reveals the thoughts of people who are directly connected to the passageway between life and death: "death no longer interests me. I wish I had a different life, I want to be on stage.” Gulo is shot in Kutaisi. I made this film in cooperation with Elene Asatiani, Mirek Koranda and Sophia Tabatadze

LACUNE Romanian spoken, English subtitles, In 'Lacune' a woman tells about the memories of her youth and her parental home, while the camera very calmly observes the details and atmosphere in the house. Sometimes the house and the woman seems to become one, at other moments the text and image clearly follow their own storyline.