When it’s your birthday, treats. And the Historical Society does this with a special film that has been in the making for two and a half years. The end result is an hour and a half long feature film full of original and often unknown film fragments; often amateur videos of Alkmaarders themselves.
Unknown amateur films from attics
An earlier call for films to be submitted turned out to be a great success. “We have received around four hundred cans and boxes from people,” says board member Rob Marijn. “Erik digitized and viewed all of that.”
That ‘Erik’ is the Haarlem documentary maker Erik Willems. It was up to him to edit a new film from all the material, which tells the story of Alkmaar: daily life and the developments that the city and its inhabitants experienced.
“Almost half of the material used comes from the attics of Alkmaarders themselves,” says filmmaker Willems. “And if you find very nice recordings there, that’s so nice. I also got a lot from Sound and Vision in Hilversum and from the image bank of the Alkmaar Regional Archives.”
Partying Nazis: exceptional image
It also contains recently surfaced footage partying Nazis in an Alkmaar hotel incorporated into it. “I have made a lot about the Second World War and am therefore well versed in what is and is not captured on moving images. And when I saw these film images, I knew immediately: they are exceptional.”
Text continues below.