FEEL IT.STREAM
Okki Poortvliet

Okki Poortvliet

Directing

Biography

Okki Poortvliet (1999) is a documentary filmmaker, audiovisual artist, and illustrator. She grew up in a small village in the north of the Netherlands, where she shot her graduation film IJswee (Longing for Ice) in 2021 at Minerva Art Academy. Since then, she has created six films, each marked by an anthropological lens, experimental approach, and human touch. Okki is fascinated by people and their worlds—whether it's Manus, who sharpens ice skates (IJswee), Jippe, who dreams of outshining Kim Jong-un (World's Greatest Missile Builder), Ricardo, who nailed his regional flag to a windmill (The Flaghoisters), or Robert, who cycles through the forest each morning at 5:30 (Over the Cattle Grid). In addition to her film work, Okki creates installations, posters, and drawings. She studied philosophy at the University of Groningen. From 2025-2028 she will attend the Master of Film program at the Netherlands Film Academy.

Known For

Over het Wildrooster

In Over the Cattle Grid you follow to Robert, Rinke and Ytzen, who spend every day in the woods between the villages of Odoorn and Exloo. Ytzen and Rinke because they live in the middle of the woods, Robert because he cycles through the woods every day to get to work. Behind the grid time seems to pass in a different way. Or as Ytzen says "there is no time, there is just being". They also see things they have never seen before, such as trees that lose their leaves in September and plants that want to start growing in the middle of winter. You will also see Wietse de Haan and Evert Prummel, they build instruments from dead trees. All the music you hear in the film was played on these tree instruments and recorded in the forest. Okki herself also occasionally passes by. She has been coming to this piece of forest all her life, which is a kilometer from the house where she grew up. Not only has she known the forest, but also Robert, Ytzen and Rinke for most of her life.

Over het Wildrooster

2023Movie