31 May

21:00

Eye Filmmuseum

IJpromenade 1, Amsterdam

A presentation on lesbian visibility and queer coding in Dutch cinema, followed by a presentation on militant cinema and the counterculture movement, including film screenings.

Unlocking the Frame: Queer Codes & Radical Cinema

More info & tickets

This event features two presentations and the screening of two films from the Eye Filmmuseum archive.

Lesbian Visibility and the Art of Queer Coding in Dutch Cinema

“There were no lesbian films in the Netherlands 50 years ago...” This is the refrain we often hear—and at first glance, a quick search in the Eye Filmmuseum’s database might seem to confirm it. But what if we look differently? Rewatching films for overlooked storylines, scouring underground festival leaflets, and tracing the footprints of queer initiatives already reveal the first clues. The rest is a treasure hunt: coded references to queer bars, nods to historical movements, and fleeting appearances of icons—details that straight audiences might miss, and queer viewers sometimes overlook. Starting from the Eye Filmmuseum’s collection, with its historical gaps and evolving priorities, we embrace the challenge: to sketch the contours of female homosexuality in Dutch film. Presentation by collection curator Lou Burkart.

Leonard Henny and the Legacy of ‘Films for Social Change’

Following the recent donation of the paper archive of the late sociologist and filmmaker Leonard Henny, Eye Filmmuseum has initiated a project of research, repatriation and subsequent conservation of his scattered film legacy. The program will focus on the formative years in America, at the heart of the counterculture movement, from 1967 through 1971. Motivated by a deep belief in film as a tool for raising consciousness on social issues, Henny began making films of draft resisters, anti-Vietnam demonstrations and the Black Power movement. The presentation will include the premiere of the new restoration of the film But What Do We Do?, an unusual take on the theme of anti-Vietnam war films, depicting the moral dilemma of engineers working for the war industry. Presentation by collection curator Simona Monizza and independent media historian and archivist Nico de Klerk.