How to Shoot a Ghost

Eye on Sound: How to Shoot a Ghost

Dutch première of the latest film by Charlie Kaufman, in which the souls of two deceased young people ponder on their former earthly existence. With a live performance by Ella van der Woude, who wrote the music, and the film’s music editor Annelotte Coster, plus the release of the soundtrack on vinyl.

This Eye on Sound evening presents two short films, and a live performance by film composer Ella van der Woude; an introduction to the latest short film by the screenwriter-with-the-boundless-imagination Charlie Kaufman, and the musical talent of Ella van der Woude.

The programme consists of Ena Sendijarević’s short film Import, for which Van der Woude wrote the music, a live performance – an homage to Charlie Kaufman by Van der Woude, Annelotte Coster and saxophonist Hristo Goleminov – and the screening of How to Shoot a Ghost, a typically Kaufman reflection on human life, as seen and experienced through the eyes of two recently deceased (young) people who meet on the bustling streets of Athens.

The occasion also marks the release by Snowstar Records of the soundtrack to How to Shoot a Ghost on physical, analogue vinyl.

Programme

Import (Ena Sendijarević, 2017, 17')
A Bosnian family flee the war in their home country and in 1994 arrive in the Netherlands as refugees. They are granted residence permits and move to a village, where they attempt to embrace the Netherlands as their home, leading to at times absurd complications. Director Ena Sendijarevic herself came to the Netherlands from Bosnia in her youth. The score is one of Ella van der Woude’s first.
Live performance by Ella van der Woude
Live homage to Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter whose brain assembles the most incomparable storylines in philosophically stimulating combinations. With Ella van der Woude (piano/vocals), Annelotte Coster (synthesizer/vocals) and Hristo Goleminov (saxophone).

Classically trained pianist Ella van der Woude is the first female film composer to have won a Golden Calf (horror film Moloch, 2022). She then received a second Calf for the music for the family drama Alpha (2024); her soundtrack for Armand (2024) won her and sound designer Mats Lid Støten the ‘Prix de la meilleure création sonore’ at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ella on her work: “My compositions usually emerge from the choice of instruments I make for the film. It’s more like a process of research into sound, in which the compositions gradually take shape.”
How to Shoot A Ghost (Charlie Kaufman, 2025, 27')
Two recently deceased young people – one a photographer, the other a translator – meet on the streets of Athens, amidst the hustle and bustle of city life. The two were outsiders; in death, they grapple with what they made of their brief lives. Kaufman intersperses the actors’ performances with historical footage (of the city); the score is by Ella van der Woude.
Q&A
Aftertalk moderated by Thijs Havens (Eye).

This is part of

Eye on Sound Eye on Art

Details

Production year

2026

Length

89 min.

Country

Part of

Eye on Sound

With Eye on Sound, Eye focuses on the special relationship between image and sound. Expect live music to silent films, live bands from today to classics of yesteryear, brand new scores to films from the versatile Eye collection and special attention to the often neglected art of sound design.

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