Freek, a curious young Dutch poet at the turn of the 1960s is struggling with convention and moral while being seduced into adulthood.

Director Marnix Ruben

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

Because (cliche alert!) film is my passion and I can’t see myself doing anything else! Because, if I could I’d make films every day! I’ve graduated from film school in Brussels in 2013 with a documentary about my best friends. It got well received and won some awards locally. It wasn’t the breakthrough I hoped for, as in I want to make fiction features, so I had to do another shortfilm to prove myself. ACROSS, or DE OVERKANT as it is called in Dutch was that short.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

That’s a very good question that I have been asking myself many times while making it. It’s very light hearted, it has barely any social or whatever message. Something I do find important, I mean why tell a story if you haven’t got anything to say? It’s a sweet tale about boys growing up in the 60s. I think it shows young people that they don’t differ so much from older people, and therefor don’t have to be afraid to grow up, also you don’t have to rush anything. There’s a lot of teen movies that tell young boys they need to break their cherry. This one tells the opposite. Your time will come!

For the older public it’s pure nostalgia, everyone was young once. Like I said it’s very lighthearted, I wanted to make a good and entertaining film that makes you feel good without being a shallow film… I hope that makes sense?

De Overkant / Across - actor Nick Golterman in the role of Freek, afraid for what’s coming.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

Universal in the way I explained above. Personal because it is very personal. The story is an adaptation, I didn’t write the original story myself, but it was easy to adapt to a screenplay because I felt so extremely related to the main character. In the first place, it is semi based on true events and it plays in my birth place where I grew up. So the story tells about places I went, my high school, bars, etc. Only like 40 years before me. But even more than that, the teenage angst, not knowing how to act, being scared of the first sexual encounter. That absolutely reminded me of my own puberty. Making this film teached me every biopic you see tells more about the maker than about the person depicted!

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?

I’ve written the script a long time before shooting. I think I wrote it in 2012 and we filmed it in 2015. But that gave me the time to really visualize everything, almost every cut and camera move you see was already written down. But although I exactly knew how the camera was going to communicate, some scenes where a mystery to me until the actors brought it to life.

And if you ask me they did a fabulous job, they really surpassed my expectations! Also because we did everything on 16mm film we didn’t have the time and the money to do a lot of takes. Some of the key scenes even had only one take! But because the flow of the film was already written down for 90% we didn’t need to shoot from every possible angle. It scared me a little when we started editing but I think it worked out great!

What type of feedback have you received so far?

It’s actually quite diverse. I’ve been to around 13 festivals worldwide and in every country they react to different things. Also age really makes a difference. The story is based on a short story written by famous Dutch comedian Freek de Jonge, it’s semi autobiographical for him so I also asked him to do the voice over and play a grumpy old man (he’s 70) who confronts his fictional self at the end of the film.

In the Netherlands people know him and some people asked my why I did that, I could have let the complete scene out of the film. The funny thing is in Spain and in the United States people confronted me to tell me they really loved this scene. That it was their favorite scene and that it sums it all up. The greater circle of clashing generations which repeats itself. Because the kids you see are the same age now as the grumpy old men. Little did they know it even is the same man!

De Overkant / Across - actors Nick Golterman and Sander Van Den Broeck on the ferry crossing the river.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

Basically it’s a comedy and I really like to see that everywhere I go people laugh at different points in the film. It’s fascinating, young people laugh at completely different scenes than older people. There’s only one point in the film where people always laugh, old and young alike.

Somewhere earlier in this interview I already told that I had a lot of doubts while making the film if it had enough to say. It is through reactions of the public that this doubt disappeared. It is also great to see how people can make a film their own and give it a meaning for themselves!

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

Well, we didn’t make it to put it away on a shelf, so the more people that are interested to go and see the film, the better!

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

Everyone who’s interested! I love to meet new people, even more if they share this passion called film!

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

My main goal was to profile myself and show the world I am capable of telling stories through film. I think this goal has been achieved. It’s screening around the world and recently I’ve received a contract from a major Belgian producer to write and direct my first feature!

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

That’s a very hard question, maybe this question. I don’t know? “did you see it?”

Would you like to add anything else?

People often tell me it looks very expensive. I thank this to the incredible crew I had around me. First of all we gathered money through crowdfunding to pay for all the necessities. But mainly everything was made and done by friends, family and people with the same burning ambition to just make the best movie they possibly could at that point. Almost everyone worked for free on this film from our incredibly professional (female) DOP Liesbet De Loof to my close childhood friends who drove the actors around or built sets for 3 months every evening after their regular day job. I don’t have much money but I feel extremely rich!

De Overkant / Across - the young friends together in legendary Jazz temple Porgy & Bess, which was specially reconstructed for the film by a bunch of creative friends.

What are the key creatives developing or working on now?

I’m writing my first feature at the moment which we will probably shoot in the summer of 2018. I plan to bring along as many people as possible that worked with me on ACROSS. Since it’s a feature length shoot it won’t be able to ask anyone to work for free anymore but I don’t want to either. But who doesn’t want to pay a crew who’s willing to do it for free? :)

The film will be about what once was the biggest Coffeeshop in the Netherlands and therefore probably in the world. It’s based on true facts and it will be about the history of weed in the Netherlands and how the dutch government was once one of the most progressive in the world and now is heading back to medieval conservatism. I hope that film will also reach people around the globe!

Interview: August 2016

_______________________________________________________________________________

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

_______________________________________________________________________________

Across

Freek, a curious young Dutch poet at the turn of the 1960s is struggling with convention and moral while being seduced into adulthood.

Length: 22min 30sec

Director: Marnix Ruben

Producer: Marnix Ruben

Writer: Marnix Ruben, adapted screenplay based on the shortstory by Freek de Jonge

About the writer, director and producer:

Marnix Ruben (1986), was trained as a filmmaker at the Sint Lukas school of arts in Brussels. Here he graduated with a Master of Arts in 2013 and was taught by great filmmakers including Michael Roskam (Bullhead) and Walther van den Ende (DOP: Le Huiteme Jour) and Ludo Troch (editor: Le Concert, Irina Palm). Marnix's first fiction short ‘Only Flesh’, also his bachelor thesis, screened at several festivals including at the international Film Festival Ghent, the International Shortfilm festival Leuven and Film by the Sea (NL). Next he made the documentary ‘Quarterlife’ (Jury price for best film in Zeeland, Film by the Sea 2013) for which he followed his best friends for over six months. While editing ‘Quarterlife’ he also filmed internationally acclaimed elektroband Goose on an international tour for 8 months.

Marnix also graduated as an art teacher and teaches film.

2011 Enkel Vlees (Only Flesh), 25min, fiction 2013 Quarterlife, 54min, documentary

2015 De Overkant (Across) 22min, fiction

Key cast: Nick Golterman, Yentl Schieman, Tim Taveirne, Sander Van Den Broeck, Jonas Vermeulen

Funders: Crowdfunded and a post production grant from the Dutch Filmboard

Made in association with: -

Release date: Septembre 15, 2015

Where can I watch it in the next month?

It will play august 17, 2pm at the Hollyshorts festival at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood California