Gerrit van Dijk started his career as a painter but his painting career ended abruptly when he saw Norman McLaren's films and bought a double-eight camera. He made his first film It 's good in Heaven and hasn't stopped since. He sees his shift to film as a logical continuation of his work as a painter, and considers his films moving paintings.
In the spirit of time, he turned his back deliberately to classic filmmaking. His films are collages that combine photographic images and image-by-image technique. His critical films of the eighties dealing with social injustice become more personal with an introspective view of the world.
Van Dijk continually searches for new forms and techniques. There are few two-dimensional techniques that he had not used: cell, cut-out, rotoscopy, pixilation or live action combined with animation. In A Good Turn Daily Van Dijk choses a form of technique for each scene individually, with an eye to expressing the content of thet scene.
Gerrit van Dijk has an extensive filmography. His films have been shown at many international festivals and won many prizes. For his films ´Pas a Deux´, which he made with Monique Renault, and ´I move, so I am` he received a Golden Bear at the Film Festspiele, Berlin 1989 and 1998.
It's good in Heaven 1971
Gerrit van Dijk & Peter Brouwer
A man is pursued by aggressive advertising images. He finds himself in a labyrinth of advertisements from where he escapes and subsequently ends up in advertising heaven. There an ironic fate awaits him.
CubeMenCube 1975
Surrealistic animation film about two cubes that come to life against an ever-changing background. The cubes pass through the process of growing up and ageing. They fall in love, make love and create new cubes. The idyll ends cruel in a devastating war.
Vlag 1972
Colourful lines and geometric figures move and change to the notes of a disjointed Wilhelmus. As the film progresses the disjointed music finds its way back to the original and flowing performance of the national anthem. The colours and figures move simultaneously into the shape and the tricolour of the Dutch flag.
Butterfly 1973
Gerrit van Dijk & Peter Brouwer
Protest against advancing urbanisation. A static shot portrays the story of a butterfly whose living space is increasingly restricted through the building of houses and factories. New development invades the butterfly's green environment at a rapid pace until the butterfly is pinned up and framed on the wall.
Sportflesh 1976
A photograph of a youngster with a football under his arm - Van Dijk's son - smoothly changes into an aquarelle and is transformed into various sports figures. Spurred on by an increasingly fanatical public the youngster mutates into a monstrous bundle of muscles.
Quod Libet 1977
An associative linking of erotic and pornographically suggestive transformations, whereby the unity is preserved by placing the action in a frame. A pear transforms into a pair of buttocks and a woman with full red lips licks an ice-cream that changes into a penis.
Queen 1978
Caricature of a stammering and clumsy English Queen Elizabeth, who holds a speech on the occasion of the 'ten year anniversary of Northern Ireland' in which she duly emphasises the English soldiers' sporting behaviour towards the IRA.
Alle Menschen werden Brüder 1979
American President Jimmy Carter and the Chinese Statesman Teng-Hsiao Ping together sing 'Alle Menschen werden Brüder'. In the background hangs a poster of Mao Zedong, in which the Great Helmsman is seen advertising Coca-Cola, Levis and Ford.
UN Soldaten / UN Soldiers 1979
Dressed in soldiers' uniform, well-known Dutchmen voice their not particularly intelligent opinions on the presence of Dutch UN soldiers in Lebanon. Soldier Van Baarn, alias Prince Bernhard, states, 'I would have preferred the air force, the pay is better'.
Valsplat / The Unexpectable 1979
Photo-animation, played out against a sketched background. A colourful gathering of politicians, artists and war criminals help politician Dries van Agt to pump up the rear tyre of his racing bike. Too much pumping leads to a blowout and with it the fall of Van Agt.
En verlos ons van de TROS, AMEN / Holocaust 1979
Fierce attack on the TROS (a Dutch broadcasting company) which, in the eyes of Van Dijk, presented the TV series 'Holocaust' as amusement. Using images from various TROS programmes, in no uncertain terms a link is made between the TROS and the persecution of the Jews. The KRO (a rival broadcasting company) broadcast this short film in the 'Alles is Anders Show'; TROS was not amused.
Pas a Deux 1988
Gerrit van Dijk & Monique Renault
A frequently awarded collaboration between Gerrit van Dijk and Monique Renault in which the appearance of two dancers partners changes constantly. Countless historical figures and icons twirl in, Tarzan becomes entangled in a duet with Snow White and the Pope dances with Joan of Arc. Van Dijk drew the female figures, Renault the male ones.
