FERA/AIDAA tribute Wim Verstappen

The Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) ñ its President and members ñ and the International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors (AIDAA) ñ its President and members ñ pay homage to the director Wim Verstappen deceased at the age of 67.

Wim Verstappen (born April 5th, 1937 in the dutch region of Brabant) spends almost all of his childhood on the Isle of Cura�ao, a Caribic Dutch colony where his father becomes a teacher after leaving Holland rapidly in 1939 as the threat of war becomes severe.
Growing up as the oldest of six sons in catholic family, it was his both opera and movie fanatic father that made him see his first movies. However, due to this religious background, he was excluded seeing American and French lovedramaís. He quotes its not the movie madness of his father but his curiosity to the films he was not allowed to see. That is where it all beganÖ
As the last part of his education, he was sent back to Holland alone to study chemistry at the age of seventeen. He wanted to make an atomic bomb. Coming from the tropics into the cold, it became one of his most difficult times. He found out trying to make bombs was not that interesting and spend his time rather in movie theatres where it was warm and cosy. Seeing films of RenÈ Claire and Claude Renoir made him decide to change his study for filmschool where he meets Pim dela Parra, a student that also came straight from the Dutch Tropics.
In 1966, he makes his first low budget feature at the age of 29: "Joseph Kat˙s returns to the land of Rembrandt". The film became a hit at Cannes and won in Pesaro. The Observer called him a genious. His future was set.
His first film productions were realized in very tight friendship with the producer Pim de La Parra and this professional bound lasted long time. Wim Verstappen was an eminent figure of the dutch avantguard of the 60.s years in Holland. At the beginning of the 70s, he got a big success and an enthusiastic public interest with his very provocative film BLUE MOVIE (1971), which had 2,3 millions film-theatre spectators. He never lost, in all his works, the trend to avantguard and to be unconventional.
Other well known films written and directed by Wim Verstappen were:
"Joseph Katus returns to the Land of Rembrandt" (1966)
"Festival" (1968)
"Dakota" (1974)
"Alicia" (1974)
"Pastorale 1943" (1993)
"Grijpstra en de Gier" (1995)
In 1995, Wim Verstappen got the prize "The Golden Calf" for his film-career.

Wim Verstappen has (co-)founded the film magazine Skoop in Holland and an internationally wellknown film production company SCORPIO FILM.

One of Wim Verstappenís achievements was abolishing censorship. He produced some cleverly designed pictures. When the censors tried to take out the offending parts, they found out that they were deleting at the same time the redeeming moral values of the film. At least, that is what Wim Verstappen told them. It caused some uproar, the censors always had to give in and,as a result, film censorship for adults now is unconstitutional in the Netherlands.
Wim Verstappen has written, directed and produced a lot of films, mostly features for theatrical release. Twice in his life, he became a milionaire thanks to the box office of some of his films. The money was ploughed back into the industry.
Public interest in Dutch films went down when most talent, Wim Verstappenís colleagues and friends, people like Paul Verhoeven, Jan de Bont, Theo van de Sande and Robby M¸ller went to the Americas. Wim Verstappen did not want to make this move, he had been there as a kid and while he loves the USA, it has no real mystery for him. Because of his background, he is drawn to Europe.
He stopped directing and producing and was now publishing, pulling and bullying to give European film a new life.
He believed the digital new forms of distribution would give back to European film its place in the public opinion, not only in Europe but also in the world.

Co-founder of FERA (1980), during the First World Directors Meeting on the Island of Madera (1983), he had the idea of AIDAA. With Fons Rademaker, he started VEVAM/SEKAM and supported strongly AIDAAís and FERAís secretariat in Brussels to secure authorsí rights to the real creators of films.