Cinematic talent Okki Poortvliet
‘I want my viewers to be in awe’
Door Marit Bonne
By Marit Bonne
Marit Bonne
She wasn’t sure if she’d heard it right. ‘A unique story’, the jury said. ‘This ode to nature is a refuge from the inauspicious times we’re living in.’ That’s when she finally realised: the jury was talking about her film.
Even on stage, philosophy student Okki Poortvliet couldn’t quite believe it. She’d been awarded the Noordster for best Northern movie, which came with one thousand euros in prize money to keep her film career going. It wasn’t the first prize she’d ever won: previously, she was awarded the Drentse Talentprijs Cultuur, as well as the prize for best non-fiction film in Groningen in 2021.
But film wasn’t even her first choice of medium when she started at art academy Minerva a few years ago. Instead, she focused on design, doing illustrations and making installations and animation. ‘There wasn’t a lot of expertise on filmmaking’, she says.
But she became increasingly interested in the art form. ‘What I love about film is that you can do anything with it: you can have different narratives, different styles. You can use animation. And unlike when you’re doing illustrations, you can go outside, get on the road. I love that.’ She mainly taught herself all the necessary skills.
Climate change
She also decided to make a film for her graduation project. ‘It was nearly winter and it didn’t look like temperatures were going to get below freezing. Again’, says Okki. The ice rink in her village had been open for years. ‘I wondered how the members of the ice-skating club were doing with all this. What’s it like to be part of that club when the chance of it freezing keeps getting smaller?’
I was looking for something that was connected to everything
So Okki went to find out. She talked to the ice-skating club and filmed them practising on dry land due to the lack of ice. ‘I’m very interested in climate change and I wanted to know what that looked like here’, she says. ‘What’s the small-scale impact? How does it affect the local ice-skating club?’ It became her film IJswee (Ice woe).
During her last year at the art academy, Okki started a bachelor programme in philosophy at the UG. ‘I wanted to continue studying and was looking for something that would give me some freedom’, she says. ‘Just like in my documentaries, I was looking for something that was connected to everything.’
While her studies don’t explicitly help her in her work as a filmmaker, Okki does think the knowledge she’s gaining has found its way in. ‘I know now that everyone has their own philosophies or ideas and that these can change. That’s led to some new perspectives.’ She’s also become more critical of her filming process. ‘I’m constantly asking myself what it is I’m trying to say.’
Anthropological
Her films have been described as anthropological: they focus on people. ‘I want to show people a glimpse of other people’s lives, to show them how special seemingly normal people really are. I want my viewers to be in awe.’
This is showcased in her film De Vlaggenhijsers (The flag raisers), in which she talks to people who fly the flag of Drenthe outside their home. Together with designer Vera Vos and theatre producer Hans van der Werf, she rang people’s doorbells to ask why they were flying the flag.
It turned out many people in Drenthe feel ignored by the bigger cities in the West. They don’t like that Drenthe is being portrayed as a backwards place full of farmers. ‘Flying the regional flag makes them proud instead of insecure: we are here and it’s beautiful here.’
Every film starts with an idea, something that evokes strong emotions in her. Next, she starts talking. ‘To figure out whether my ideas are right.’ What’s next? ‘Finding the money, of course’, she adds.
Critical
It’s essential to her that the films are genuinely about something. They’re not activist films, she says, but they do cover themes that are important to her. IJswee is about climate change and her prize-winning film Over het wildrooster (Across the cattle grid) focuses on the woods between Odoorn and Exloo, where she grew up. It tells the story of the people who live near the woods, asking why it’s so different from living anywhere else.
I realised I can reach people even without a whole crew
She filmed Robert, who bikes through the woods every day, as well as father and son Ytsen and Rinke, who live in the woods, and the foresters who work in them. They were all people she’d seen around the neighbourhood but had never spoken to. ‘Making films is an excuse to get to know people better.’
Over het wildrooster, and especially the prize she won for it, made Okki look at her work differently. ‘During the preview, I was so critical of my own film’, she says. She noticed scenes she could have edited differently and music that didn’t quite match and didn’t like what she saw. And yet, she won the Noordster prize. ‘I realised that my work allows me to reach out to people and inspire them, even if I don’t have a whole crew. That’s what I love about the prize: it gave me so much confidence.’
Killing animals
Right now, Okki is in the midst of developing a new and ‘really exciting’ project. ‘Someone once told me there were more pigs than people in Brabant, but three years ago I had to travel through the province every day, and I didn’t see a single pig.’
I definitely have a love-hate relationship with every stage of the filming process
She realised the invisible pigs were part of a much larger story. ‘Every day, approximately 1.7 million animals are killed in the Netherlands. And I wondered what killing an animal does to a person.’ Her new film is about the people who kill animals: hunters, mole catchers, and others. ‘But I’d also like to include a shot of someone killing a mosquito.’
Working on this film is a little difficult for her. ‘I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle certain images or stories’, she says. ‘It’s very emotional and a little scary.’ Nevertheless, she’s happy that she can focus on these difficult subjects, especially because it allows her to provide insight.
Intuitive
Her filming style is intuitive, she says; she has no scripts and works mostly alone. ‘Maybe it’s because I have no formal training. But I do have a general idea of the scenes I want and how long they should last.’
That also means things occasionally go wrong. ‘The wrong white balance or a microphone that stopped working’, she says. ‘It means finding creative solutions during the editing process. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with every stage of the filming process.’
Things are going well for her right now. The film movement in the North of the Netherlands is growing rapidly. The number of film festivals and prizes is increasing, and people are even talking about a local film fund to more easily finance films. The best part, she says, is that filmmakers encourage each other. ‘The atmosphere is great and not competitive at all; everyone is happy for other people’s success.’
Okki isn’t nearly done with filmmaking. She’s currently a part of New Noardic Wave, a platform for media and filmmakers in the North. Master classes and workshops are helping her develop her innate talents even more. ‘I might even get a crew to work with soon, that would be really great.’