Winter Wonderland

Sinterklaas and Santa Claus, Christmas, the New Year and having fun in the ice and snow have been popular subjects from the very beginning of cinema history. Eye also has many films on these themes in its collection. Winter Wonderland is an atmospheric compilation of magical winter reportages and short Christmas films that could have been presented in cinemas at the beginning of the last century. A mix of silent films and talkies.Around 1910, the cinema in the Netherlands emerged as the regular place to see films. At that time, films were short – fifteen minutes at most. Feature-length films only started to dominate screening schedules from the middle of the 1910s. Before that, film screenings consisted of compilation programmes of short films. Eye’s Silent Film curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi put together this Christmas film compilation of silent films – often hand-coloured – as well as early sound films such as those of producer Joop Geesink, who made puppet films, among others. Mass audiences in the Netherlands will mainly know him from his last creation, TV animated character Loeki the Lion. With live music from Martin de Ruiter.