In My Enschede filmmaker Astrid Bussink returns to Enschede, a city in the east of the Netherlands where she studied and lived. On her last day there, 13th of may 2000, while packing her belongings to move to Amsterdam, a fireworks storage -apparently located across her house- exploded, leading to 23 people dying and over a 1000 people injured. The neighborhood looked liked it was bombed.
Now, almost ten years later she decides to return to Enschede, to see how the city rebuild itself and how people deal with this extraordinary moment in their lives. She discovers people are still seeking for answers; who is responsible for what happened? Who can be blamed?Back in Enschede Astrid soon finds herself tangled up in a haunt for answers, but slowly starts to wonder whether any answer will ever be sufficient.
DVD
Director
Astrid Bussink
Astrid Bussink studied fine art at the Academy of fine Arts, AKI, Enschede (BA) in the Netherlands and her Master in film at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. During this Master she shot her award winning documentary ‘The Angelmakers’ (First Appearance Award IDFA, Little Stamp award, ZagrebDOX, Best short Documentary, Dokufest, nomination Grierson Award and more). After this she made the short films Rückenlage / Upside Down ( Best Short Experimental film at Vermont International Film Festival, nominated Silver Cub, IDFA 2006), The 9 lives of my car (a.o. Dutch Filmfestival 2007) and I shot the mayor (Or: Plan B) (a.o. nominated Silver Cub IDFA 2007, official selection Zagrebdox and HOTDOCS).
Bussink now lives and works in Amsterdam where she made her first feature length documentary The Lost Colony (Official Selection Rotterdam International Filmfestival, HOTDOCS a.o.) and has now finished her new personal documentary Mijn Enschede, about the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened in 2000, in which 23 people died, 1000 were injured. ‘My Enschede’ has premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2010.
During her artist in residency program in New York she started her project Constructions of (www.constructionsofhappiness.com) which she showed in galleries in New York and Edinburgh. Back in the Netherlands she is now continuing her COH project and is working on the documentary by the same title.
Bussink now lives and works in Amsterdam where she made her first feature length documentary The Lost Colony (Official Selection Rotterdam International Filmfestival, HOTDOCS a.o.) and has now finished her new personal documentary Mijn Enschede, about the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened in 2000, in which 23 people died, 1000 were injured. ‘My Enschede’ has premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2010.
During her artist in residency program in New York she started her project Constructions of (www.constructionsofhappiness.com) which she showed in galleries in New York and Edinburgh. Back in the Netherlands she is now continuing her COH project and is working on the documentary by the same title.
Credits
Camera: Rogier Timmermans.
Sound: Timo Hegtermans.
Editors: Lodewijk Tossaint & Astrid Bussink.
Animation: Karlijn Koster.
Mixage: Tom Bijnen.
Commissioning editor NTR: Annemiek van der Zanden.
In coproduction with Docster and NTR.