Han Bennink

Matthijs looks back in surprise. With humor, music and other surprises.

An ode to multi-talented artist and radio and television producer Wim T. Schippers by absurdist Ronald Snijders. In a cheerfully disruptive manner, Snijders guides the viewer through a richly illustrated overview of Schippers' work, where they meet the man who could both seduce and intentionally bore, confuse, shock, and irritate Dutch television viewers. Many clips of Schippers became legendary, such as Queen Juliana cleaning Brussels sprouts, a naked Phil Bloom reading the newspaper, and the shows featuring Barend Servet and Sjef van Oekel. Schippers wrote the sheepdog play Going to the Dogs and has been the voice of Ernie in Sesamstraat for many years.

This feature-length documentary chronicles the life and playful methods of Dutch pianist and composer Misha Mengelberg, a significant figure in post-WWII European Jazz and free improvisation. Archival footage, rehearsal / performance sequences and interviews with both Mengelberg (the "godfather of Dutch improvised music") and key collaborators provide a clear insight in Mengelberg's original way of thinking and way of working.

How do you become Peter Brötzmann? How do you become what you are: a painter, a musician, an absolute artist? Europe was nothing but a ruin and shame possessed the heart of the young Germans. They needed to invent, scream, regain a lost brotherhood. Overcome this silence! That’s how some young German, British, Dutch, Belgian… musicians made Europe exist long before Maastrich and have kept on cherishing, imperturbably, their freedom! They are no longer twenty-year-olds, but others have followed. They set themselves one constraint: reinvent everything every time. A way to take the very instant into account, to let the unexpected in, to match to the world.

A documentary about the weeks leading up to the early death of jazz legend Eric Dolphy. Centered around his last month alive and the titular record done in Holland with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, the documentary traces his LA roots up through the last Charles Mingus tour that led Dolphy to stay in Europe in 1964. The interviews are with a host of contemporaries like Richard Davis, Ted Curson, Nathan Davis and those involved in the Last Date recording. The rare archival footage of Dolphy is riveting. The pictures provided by friends and family also show an intense young man whose future success was assured.

A documentary on underground and experimental rock acts performing at Les Instants Chavirés, a music venue in Montreuil, France. Performers include Thierry Madiot, Peter Brötzmann + Han Bennink, The Ex + Tom Cora, Roof, Hint + Quentin Rollet, Kampec Dolores, Prolapse, King Biscuit, Zeni Geva, Melt Banana, Purr, Badgewearer, Heliogabale + Didier Petit, Keiji Haino, Oxbow, US Maple, New Bad Things, Tiger Lillies, Marc Ribot, KK Null, Api Uiz, Labradford, Godspeed You Black Emperor, De Kift, Sophie Agnel & Roro Perrot.