Rötter

A teenage boy from a respectable family, Stanisław Czajkowski, dies in mysterious circumstances in a Krakow guesthouse. His brother-in-law, Count Maksymilian Rotter, married to Stanisław's older sister, Ksawera, is accused of the murder.

In Trees of Rotterdam, Alice Ladenburg and Ollie Palmer portray the greenest inhabitants of the city of Rotterdam. In a single, virtual shot we glide through the city, while listening to stories about its green giants – that incidentally outnumber the people. Initially the artificiality of the imagery seems to contrast with the nature we see, though eventually, the two intertwine like stems – the city embraces the trees and the trees embrace the city.

Rotterdam 2040 is a film about the city’s future, departing from the principle of Gyz La Rivière that you can’t look ahead without considering your past (something that hasn’t always been Rotterdam’s strongest feature). At high speed, La Rivière reconstructs the history of Rotterdam from the time before the bombings until now, and expands the developments to the year 2040 (100 years after the bombing and the 700th anniversary of the city). La Rivière made a specific choice to expose his personal vision, which is sometimes radical or a little absurd. So no experts and no talking heads, but an assault of old and new imagery, held together by La Rivière as the narrator of the film. Although Rotterdam 2040 deals with architecture and urban renewal, it is actually a film about people. The subjective experience of the city by its (future) occupants mainly determines the parade of architectural blunders and suggestions for the future. All tongue-in-cheek of course.

Moving portrait of one of Rotterdam’s musical heroes: singing crane driver Lee Towers. After a lengthy period of absence, he is back on stage for one last gala concert in Ahoy. Behind the glitter and glamour, real life goes on, and that is above all hard work.

The ruined harbor of Rotterdam obstructs the recovery of The Netherlands after the war. Rapidly and with borrowed strength the harbor takes its rightful place in the city of Rotterdam.

Instructional film about the (former) biggest harbour in the world, with a hybrid format. Well known Ivens themes are revisited, like The Flying Dutchman in the fiction part of the film, who returns to the modern day Rotterdam, that has recovered very well after the devastating bombardments in the second world war.

This comes from a rare DVD from the Eureka concert, performed by Vangelis at the docks in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 18th July 1991. A floating stage was made for Vangelis with his synths and the choir, surrounded by Greek ornaments. Buildings and boats around were animated by projections of colors and lasera animation. Unfortunately, this appears to be a “finger-sync” style performance. The way the video is edited, too, there frequently seems to be no connection between what Vangelis is doing and the music. Jon Anderson appeared as guest for the track "Italian Song" and Markella Hatziano appeared for "Glorianna".