Her project Dramayama (working title), to be developed with European and Indian space agencies and animators, will examine our planetary system from the perspective of ancient mythology. A recent recipient of Netherlands Film Fund script support, Groenendaal is looking to start production on the film in late 2012.
“It’s about Inner Space, so it’s the visualisation of the heavens from very ancient times, 3,000 years ago, and into the future”, she explains. “It’s a kind of Indiana Jane – or Indiana Jeanette. It’s coming from the ritual basis of mythology – the therapeutic aspect of my movie-making is very much connected to that. The earth is a spaceship, and through the ancients there is beautiful knowledge that is attached to it. Now, through technology, we can start to understand this knowledge. The film will be like a Harry Potter master class. I think the audience is ready for this information.”
Speaking after the second screening of her personal and painful Paradocs selection Reformation, Groenendaal says: “At half past ten there were still 180 people there and afterwards I received poetry that made me cry, as a reaction to my movie. I really enjoyed seeing a movie I only finished last week up there on the big screen.”
Which is why she intends to carry on banging the drum for the type of films she makes, convinced that there is an increasingly strong market for them. “As a producer of my own movies I feel like I have to take a stand, defend and protect experimental films. I have to explain this all the time to all these festival directors. Audiences are always looking for new forms.
There are audiences for all these experimental films,” she underlines.
By Nick Cunningham Publication date: November 25, 2011 Contact | Advertising