Sepio Frans van de Staak, Netherlands, 1996, 31min, VOSE [16 mm]

One of Frans van de Staak's most beautiful and stark films. There is only one protagonist in Sepio : a woman who moves through a summer landscape and suffers her love in everything around her.

Sonate Frans van de Staak, Netherlands, 1975, 5 min, VOSE [16 mm]

Van de Staak's shortest film, Sonate , alternates shots of a man reciting words in English and Dutch with details of the port where the recitation takes place. The soundtrack abruptly and jarringly combines words, noises, and a musical recording whose pitch and volume are constantly altered.

Dichtweefsel Frans van de Staak, Netherlands, 1999, 20min, VOSE [16 mm]

In Dichtweefsel , an actress rehearses Wallace Stevens' play Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise , playing all the characters (three Chinese travelers and a girl from Pennsylvania). Another actor, or perhaps a director, listens and gives directions to the actress.

Tien gedichten van Hubert Korneliszoon Poot Frans van de Staak, Netherlands, 1975, 32 min, VOSE [16 mm]

Actor Donald de Marcas recites ten texts by Hubert K. Poot, a Dutch "farm poet" from the early 18th century. Poot's baroque poetry, both elaborate and idyllic, is brought to life in rural settings like those inhabited by the writer himself. Marcas's recitation, the expressiveness of his poses, and the numerous stage elements that disrupt the landscape, bring the texts to life in unexpected and often humorous ways.