Eye on Screens

Our curators have selected over 500 brief clips from the first 30 years of film history (1895 – 1925) for Eye on Screens. From 24 June 2021 onwards, Eye will surprise people in the streets, at stations and on squares with these gems from early cinema. They provide a glimpse of the world a century ago. The images will be screened for a week every month on some 50 large digital screens across the country – screens that normally only show commercials.

Kilometres of celluloid

The excerpts are all from Eye’s sub-collections. Our depots safely conserve well over 200,000 film cans. Each can with its own unique contents: immortalised images on kilometres of celluloid.

The clips originate from collections like that of film pioneer Jean Desmet. This exceptional archive has been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The curators also did research at the Nederlands Centraal Archief [Netherlands National Archives]. What did the Netherlands look like 100 years ago? Willy Mullens visited towns and villages all over the country with his camera.

Also to be screened are the enchanting coloured films from the very beginning of cinema. Just as special are the Bits & Pieces: long forgotten, orphaned snippets of celluloid, with no beginning, no end and with no known maker, yet their beauty is so obvious. They come alive even more when encountered unexpectedly, out in the street.

Actor Gaite Jansen tells you about her favourite film fragment from Eye's collection