FILMCATALOGUE DOCUMENTAIRES

CLAIR-OBSCUR  (experimental feature 1963 - 15 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: The polder, main feature of the Dutch landscape, has a disconcerting effect on the traveller who comes across it. In the film a young man begins to explore this world and finds himself steeped in silence and the vastness of the space. He has a feeling of serenity which he naively endeavours to capture. But the climate of Holland always seeks revenge. Serenity gradually gives way to despair against the backdrop of the bare landscape with no shelter to offer. The very same reasons which explain the polder’s charm now becomes responsible for a hostile attitude: the vastness becomes obsessive and paradise becomes hell. 

ABOUT FANTASIO  (1969 - 30 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Jan van den Brink and produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: Fantasio was the centre of Amsterdam hippie life in the late sixties. Music, soft drugs and dance brought the young generation who were fighting the ‘establishment’ together in that then famous magic place. 

THE HOLY FAMILY  (1971 - 20 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Jan van den Brink and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: The film is following a group of parents who want to change the classical education to what is now considered the anti authoritarian education. More freedom for the children, less sanctions

THE RAFT  (1973 - 29 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: An intimate account on a 1000 km journey on a river in the North East of Brazil, on a self made raft, carrying a small household including two children. Life in slow motion with fleeting encounters along the banks. When the family arrives after a month in Teresina, the merchandise is sold, the raft dismantled, branch by branch, leaf by leaf. 

ZECA, portrait of a Vaquero  (1973 - 19 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: The film traces the professional, social and family life of Zeca, a cowboy from the North-East of Brazil.   

LETTERS  (1973 - 9 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: A little village. Between the loam huts a new construction; the school. In the classroom adults make a first attempt at writing. At home the children help their illiterate parents with their schoolwork. 

THREE DAYS RESPITE IN SAO LUIS  (1973 - 15 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: Three days of exuberant joy in a town in the North East of Brazil during carnival: 3 days respite from poverty and daily-life problems from the poor, the lepers and … the rich. 

ORONOQUE  (1975 - 43 min.) 
Directed by A. den Ouden / T. van den Sande and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: The film is the personal report of an expedition made by two Dutch filmmakers to a inhospitable part in the jungles of South America where no human being has set foot. They followed an unknown river, set off through the jungle, and filmed and commented on each other in turn. That learned to live with the measureless jungle and each other.

SWEETWATER JUNCTION  (1980 - 35 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films 

Summary: Texas is the homeland of the diamondback rattlesnake, a plague to cattle, oil pipe engineers and everyone not on the alert. At Sweetwater’s annual rattlesnake Round-Up (the largest in the world) only live snakes are brought in, to extract the venom needed for medical research. Thus, ingenious and scrupulously delicate hunting techniques are developed.

THE ISLANDERS  (1975/1976 - 55 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: Scotland, the small communities in the islands and highlands are disturbed by the heartbeat of todays industry; oil! Yesterday weavers are now welders of oilrigs, fisherman catch their fish between the pipelines. Will there be a future for them and their children in the land of tales, whisky and bagpipes?

LAND OF THE FATHERS  (1974/1975 - 34 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films 

Summary: It is a film about the followers of the Palestinian guerrillas and a film about two families driven from their rightful territory. The film is reflective about a situation of political tension, violence and terror, nevertheless a film about daily life. The film was shot in a camp in Lebanon shortly after an Israeli bombardment.

A REASON TO GO  (1977 - 38 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films 

Summary: In 1974 George Sluizer made a film about two Palestinian families and their desire for recognition. At the end of the civil war in Lebanon he returned to see if his friends had survived. Most did, but the years of fighting left and indelible mark on their lives. As the Palestinians say ‘Its a long war struggle'.

ADIOS BEIRUT  (1983 - 45 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films 

Summary: The film is the third part of a chronicle of two Palestinians families and their lives over eight tumultuous years, is a story about fear, uncertainty, longing and a film about the new diaspora of Palestinians in Lebanon, Italy, France, Israel and Cuba. 

HOMELAND  (2010 - 76 min.) 
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films 

Summary: Homeland is the fourth film in a series about two Palestinians families George Sluizer followed since 1974. Homeland is also a personal film about George’s motivation and his relationship with members of the two families who became very close. They are now scattered around the world, unable to return to the homeland. It’s also a historical saga about the Palestinians and their struggle for land an dignity.  

 

  

FILMCATALOGUE FEATURES & LONG FEATURE FILMS

JOAO AND THE KNIFE  (1975 - 95 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: based on a Brazilian poem of Odylo Costa Fihlo and very attractive set in the country’s Amazonian and North East hinterlands, Joao and the knife is a hauntingly strange and visually stunning picture. A poor and elderly hunter and cattle ranger marries Maria a 19 year old village girl against logic and advice. As he can’t give his young bride children, he travels to the Amazonian forest to make money and give her a better life. On his return as a rich man four years later, he finds Maria carrying a three year old little child. Joao a simple man who has never lied in his life doubts about the fidelity of his wife. He buys a knife before returning to their village, a long trip through the jungle. Will Joao be able to refrain from hurting the one he loves so much? 

STAMPING GROUND  (1970 - 100 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Hans J. Pohland and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: Huge 3 day open-air Pop Music Festival in Rotterdam with the world’s well known groups and singers of that period like; Santana, Pink Floyd, The Birds, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, AL Stewart, Canned Heat, T-Rex and more. 

CANCER RISING  (1975 - 90 min.)
Directed by Herbert Curiel and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: Cancer Rising is a passionate love affair between two people with different backgrounds. They don’t know how they live can without each other yet they would never be able to live together.

TWICE A WOMEN  (1979 - 102 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: Laura lives in Amsterdam in a world of books and artefacts from the Museum where she works. She has been divorced from her husband for several years. One day Laura, to her own astonishment, falls in love with a 20 year old girl, Silvia a mixture of innocence and boldness. Quickly a warm and tender relation arises between the two women. They fantasize about having a child. One night, at the opening of a play, Silvia is introduced to her ex-husband Alfred who is a theatre critic. Suddenly Silvia becomes silent and disappears. Laura becomes very depressed. Some month’s pass and Silvia appears as suddenly she disappeared. She admits she only went to live with Alfred in order to become pregnant. That night the two women celebrate their reunion but they are interrupted by Alfred who pleads to talk to Silvia alone. Next day, Laura is at work when she receives a phone call from the police. A horrible drama has taken place in her apartment. 

TIRO  (1979 - 112 min.)
Directed by Joep Bijl and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: Tom a boy on the verge of adulthood, rebels against the proposed drainage of the holms and marshes where in the family tradition, he has hunted ducks with great passion. Tom uses the impending drainage, accepted by his father as a pretext for unleashing all his antipathies and frustrations. Between Tom and Lily who is more then a sister to him, exists a deep bond which is threatened by the industrialist who plans to build a factory on the terrain in question. Tom has a warm reassuring friendship with is grandfather. When the old man dies, Tom feels so abandoned ,that any realistic goal in this society appears to him to be totally futile. 

TEPITO SI  (1982 - 60 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: Tepito Si is the dramatized story of the people of Tepito, a popular district in the heart of Mexico city who struggle for their existence and succeed in surviving in spite of corruption and political game. 

BASTILLE  (1984 - 100 min.)
Directed by Rudolf van den Berg and Produced by Sluizer Films
Summary: Paul de Wit has a fine family life with his wife and 2 daughters, a good job as a teacher and is writing an ambitious book about the French Revolution. For his research he goes to Paris. There he falls in love with Nadine, a Jewish student. He tells her he was born in hiding and the only one who escaped deportation. He never knew his parents or his twin brother Philip. Back home Paul looks at a picture he took of Nadine and discovers a passer on the background who is the spitting image of himself. He becomes obsessed with the idea that it might be his long lost twin brother. He breaks his ties with every day reality and goes in search for his brother.

RED DESERT PENINTENTIARY  (1985 - 103 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: Myrna Greenbaum had no experience. Dan Mc Can had too much. When they are cast as a romantic lead in a B western, Dan decides to teach Myrna how to make love to enhance his own performance. But the script portrays him as a loser. When the man who’s role he plays appears on the set Dan’s character falls victim to a Kafkaesque twist of faith. Love, experience, innocence and guilt, all trade places as Red Desert Penitentiary is revealed as a prison of the imagination.   

THE VANISHING  (Spoorloos 1988 - 105 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: A young man begins an obsessive search for his girlfriend after she mysteriously disappears during their sunny vacation getaway. His 3 years of investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a seemingly mild-mannered professor, who, in truth, harbours a clinical and diabolic mind.  When the kidnapper contacts the man and promises to reveal his lover’s fate, The Vanishing unfolds, with intense precision, culminating in a genuinely chilling finale. 

DYING TO GO HOME  (1995 - 100 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Carlo da Silva Produced by Sluizer Films

Summary: In this romantic comedy, Manuel Espiritos Santo, is just an ordinary Portuguese emigrant, till he wakes up  at a cemetery and discovers he become a ghost. An old ghost living in the grave next door tells him he can only rest in peace if he brings his bones back to his native land. Worse yet the only way to communicate with the living is through dreams which they tend to forget once they wake up. 

THE STONE RAFT  (2002 - 112 min.)
Directed by George Sluizer and Produced by Sluizer Films and Sogecine

Summary: Five strangers from various parts of the Iberian Peninsula, experience an outbreak of seemingly unrelated supernatural phenomena that only later on take on greater significance. All are experiencing events they can’t logically explain. Pedro -the fifth stranger-, experience is the most significant, as he alone feels a bizarre tremor that eventually to the peninsula dislodging itself from the rest of the European continent.  As the new island drifts away and a catastrophic disaster appears imminent, the five strangers seek an answer to all the puzzling events and are thus drawn together on their mutual quest for truth.