LOWLANDS UPDATES

We are now casting for the voice-over parts for two brief 17th century historical re-enactment scenes and for the speaking parts in the masque (a 17th century chamber opera form) that closes the film. These parts will be recorded in Chicago during March and April.

Specifically, we are seeking a small number of native Dutch-speaking persons: 10-to-80 year old women, and 20-to-80 year old men. Please contact Peter Thompson. Studio: 773 404-2002. Email: peterchicagomediaworks@hotmail.com.

LOWLANDS

is a feature film exploring the effects of war upon the domestic and creative lives of Catharina Bolnes and her husband, painter Johannes Vermeer. This film mixes the genres of narrative and documentary. The documentary elements were shot in Delft, The Hague and seven other cities in the Netherlands that figured most prominently in the France-Netherlands war of 1672-1675. Besides this contemporary footage retracing the route of Louis XIV's army as it carried out a policy of rape warfare, visuals within the documentary include: 17th century paintings and etchings from that war; amateur photographs of domestic life in the Netherlands during World War II; amateur films of domestic and political life in the Netherlands during World War II, and United Nations-produced footage of the trial in The Hague of Bosnian Serb war criminal Dusko Tadic for the crime of rape-warfare.

These diverse elements are unified by Catharina Bolnes, focusing particularly on her life with Vermeer during the war and the bankruptcy that she declared after Vermeer's death in 1675 had left her with no income and ten minor children. All these documentary elements culminate in a narrative--a masque based on a dream by Catharina Bolnes.

PETER THOMPSON

is the producer/director of LOWLANDS: Rockefeller Fellow in Intercultural Documentary Film. Films broadcast in Europe, Australia, USA. One-person screenings at venues including Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Siskel Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago. Films toured Europe in a traveling exhibition ("American Independent Cinema Now") curated by Richard Pena and Jonathan Rosenbaum under the auspices of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, NY. Produced and directed EL MOVIMIENTO (2003), a Rockefeller Foundation funded feature documentary tracking the relationship between a Maya shaman and his North American apprentice in Yucatan over a ten-year period. Representative film reviews.