Estranhos Encontros presents, for the first time in Brazil, a retrospective devoted to the filmmaker Frans van de Staak

São Paulo · The second edition of Estranhos Encontros: São Paulo International Film Festival presents, for the first time in Brazil and in Latin America, a retrospective devoted to the Dutch filmmaker Frans van de Staak (1943–2001). Between 20 and 27 September, 11 of his titles will be screened, all from 16mm prints, at the Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP). The programme will also feature Stefan van de Staak, the director's son, taking part in a panel devoted to his father's work.

The programme is held in partnership with the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, with the support of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in São Paulo. The retrospective seeks to present and give context, for audiences in the city, to a body of work still little known in Brazil but which has been rediscovered by major international institutions and festivals.

Born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, the son of a shoemaker, Frans van de Staak began working as a painter and financed his first films with money from a public fund for visual artists. Over nearly five decades of work he built a vast body of films, close to 30 titles in all, between shorts and features.

His films operate in the field of the experimental, often setting out from adaptations of plays but filming everyday gestures and seemingly banal situations, generating a tension between what is filmed and the written text. The inventiveness of his work led the filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub to describe van de Staak as a missing link in the history of cinema, and the only heir of the Soviet director Dziga Vertov.

Yet although he became one of the most singular names in Dutch cinema, Frans van de Staak's work was slow to gain international recognition. After many years with few screenings, the director has been rediscovered by institutions in several countries. Among these initiatives is the Punto de Vista Festival in Pamplona, one of the most important festivals in Spain.

The Estranhos Encontros programme is part of this movement of rediscovery, recovering and giving context to a body of work of historical importance and bringing new audiences into contact with it.

By bringing the retrospective to São Paulo on 16mm prints — an exhibition format little used in Brazil today — the festival also offers an experience that preserves the material dimension of the filmmaker's work, a practice always bound to the film medium itself.

The retrospective is part of the festival's aim to bring Brazilian audiences closer to cinemas off the radar. The festival's second edition begins on 16 September with a ceremony at the Instituto Cervantes and also presents a retrospective devoted to the Spanish filmmaker Pablo Llorca, alongside International Competitions for features and shorts and a Brazilian shorts showcase.

From 20 September, the 11 Frans van de Staak titles will be screened on 16mm at the CCSP, with repeat screenings on film at the same venue and some repeats in digital format at the Centro Cultural Olido. Admission to all festival screenings is free.