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65 Years of the Film Academy: Digna Sinke

The Film Academy turns 65 this year! To celebrate this landmark anniversary, Eye Filmmuseum has been given access to every graduation film ever made, right from the very start back in 1958 – some of these films haven’t been screened since then. The films will be incorporated into the Eye collection over the next few years, and a selection of them can be seen on the Eye Film Player. We spoke to some of the makers. Digna Sinke graduated in 1972 with her film Groeten uit Zonnemaire.

By Michael Oudman15 October 2024

What did the Filmacademie teach you?

"A lot. For four years you focus completely on film with your classmates. I was only eighteen, so I became an adult at the same time. I didn't have much life experience yet, so everything was new. You see all sorts of things and then you talk about what you've seen. I wasn't involved with film yet either. We're talking about 1968 when I started, it was still very unusual to have your own camera. Yes, there was 8mm, but that was more something old men made holiday films with, so to speak."

 © Tara Fallaux

"I lived in Utrecht at the time, and went to the Cinemanifestation by Hubert Bals, in Camera and Studio. That's where I saw my first weird films, which I found fascinating. I bought a five-ride ticket for it, which not all my classmates did. And then after the film you had discussions with makers in those shipyard cellars, in Cinecave. Big names, mind you, Godard for example, and then the main language was French. I would ask a question, in French, and then I would simply get an answer from a big film director. That made a huge impression on me. That entourage, that internationality, that was fantastic, I wanted to be part of that."

What has been the biggest lesson?

"I found Harry Kümel's lessons very important. He gave film analysis, but at the same time he also taught us practical things. We acted out a film scene by Von Sternberg, where we also had to stand in front of the camera, which made you suddenly understand what you do as a director or camera person when you film someone with your camera. It taught me to think more broadly. When I started, my great love was photography. From the age of fourteen I had a camera and a dark room, and I went into the city to photograph what I thought was important. But when I came to the Film Academy, it was still unthinkable that a girl would become a camera woman, that was still something very rare. You also have to know that the cameras back then were much, much heavier than they are now, it was much more physical. The teachers were also not of the nature that they found it acceptable for a girl to interfere with those things."

“when I came to the Film Academy, it was still unthinkable that a girl would become a camera woman.”

Digna Sinke

Did that make you feel more compelled to prove yourself?

"No, I quickly started to multi-task. I did sound, I was an assistant, a script girl, but eventually editing became my thing. I finished a film where the director didn't know how to continue as a kind of substitute director. I actually did odd jobs. In the final year, we were a very democratic year, we as a class had taken all the power to ourselves. We decided for ourselves which films could be made, and everyone could submit a script. So also cameramen or sound people. My script was very quickly seen by the class as something that had to be made. Then I accidentally became a director. I found it so difficult to make Groeten uit Zonnemaire at the time, I had the feeling that I had no control, that it was far too complicated, that everyone knew better. I had no idea how to do it. Whereas, when I look at it now, it is quite a Digna film. I was completely unaware of that at the time, I felt very desperate and didn't enjoy it. After that I went on to study Art History because I thought that film would not work anymore. But then my film Van Gogh aan de muur was approved, which I had submitted to Beeldspraak. It was about a reproduction of a Van Gogh, not even a real one. Then I dropped my Art History exam because I was already busy with the recordings, and after that I really converted to film."

still from Groeten uit Zonnemaire (Digna Sinke, NL 1972)

still Groeten uit Zonnemaire (Digna Sinke, NL 1972)

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Watch Groeten uit Zonnemaire for free on the Eye Film Player.

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Eventually you also produced films.

"My husband was a producer at Studio Nieuwe Gronden, and he passed away in 2001. At that time, two films were halfway through, a film by Louis van Gasteren and a film by Nicole van Kilsdonk. I finished those, because I knew best what kind of films they were. I knew where all the things were, I knew those people, had seen many working copies. At that time, I was working on three films as a director, but all three were rejected by the Film Fund. Then I thought, for God's sake, I have to become a producer now. One of those films, Lemmingen, was about the Film Academy. As a producer, you get to meet more people than as a director, and that got me through the mourning period. As a director, you do have shooting days, but you mainly sit in your own attic room, or in my case the basement, worrying about your own project. Whereas, as a producer, people come to you, you have conversations, you have to get something done. And I turned out to be good at that."

You seem fascinated by transience.

"At first I wasn't aware of it, but gradually I started to see it myself. It's actually mainly others who point it out to me. Belle van Zuylen is more about feeling or reason, but especially Tiengemeten and Nothing for Eternity, and even my film about the school newspaper really do have transience as a theme. I'm not afraid of transience, but it fascinates me. People walk around the world for a while, and then suddenly they're gone. Some things last a long time, something else disappears and reappears, you make something and it disappears. I find that very funny."

still from Belle van Zuylen - Madame de Charrière (Digna Sinke, NL 1993)
still from Belle van Zuylen - Madame de Charrière (Digna Sinke, NL 1993)
still from Belle van Zuylen - Madame de Charrière (Digna Sinke, NL 1993)
still from Belle van Zuylen - Madame de Charrière (Digna Sinke, NL 1993)

And that doesn't make you sad?

"No, no, that doesn't make me depressed. I merely think it's wonderful."

Filmmaking now, or filmmaking back then?

"When I see my own struggles with those earlier films, I notice that I now enjoy making them much more. I used to find it very scary not to know how to do it. I'm almost finished with Hemelsleutel now, and then a shooting period on a set, with all the people around you, trying things out, not really knowing how to do it, is actually exciting. I also think it's great that at my age I still want to embark on the great adventure of filmmaking."

So you're not thinking about quitting yet.

"No, not really. I just bought a new camera. I'm not going to make another ten-part series for a streamer, I don't know if I really like that. But I do myself a big favor when I go out with my own camera, to some place I don't know, and try to capture what fascinates me about that place."

still from Groeten uit Zonnemaire (Digna Sinke, NL 1972)

still Groeten uit Zonnemaire (Digna Sinke, NL 1972)

still Weemoed en wildernis (Digna Sinke, NL 2010)

What would you like to tell future graduates?

"Yesterday I was on stage in Utrecht, where I was allowed to present a wildcard for the Film Fund, for a new documentary. The presenter asked what the source of my success is, and then I answered that it is endurance and perseverance. And a kind of stubbornness. Later that evening I got into conversation with young people, who were pleased to hear that I also mentioned that projects of mine are still rejected by the Film Fund. I have very few projects that received money immediately. Therefore: endurance and perseverance."

still from In Kropsdam is iedereen gelukkig (Joren Molter, NL 2016)

still In Kropsdam is iedereen gelukkig (Joren Molter, NL 2016)

Eye Film Player

The Nederlandse Filmacademie will celebrate its 65th anniversary this year. Stream a special selection of graduation films from 65 years of Film Academy history. A new film is added every month.

Visit the Eye Film Player