“I think my only wish could be… That this picture, you gathered here, could be seen all over the world.” Now closer to a century since those words were uttered at a women’s peace march in the Netherlands, Sabine Groenewegen’s captivating collage of only recently unearthed archival sources finally grants the wishes of this unknown heroine. Remanence (2024) tells the unsung story of pre-war Dutch womens’ pacifist and feminist movements, through audio from decades-old interviews with those involved and footage taken of marches at the time.
Powering against the patriarchy and facing the forces of facism, women from all over the Netherlands came together in an effort to change the collective consciousness of a nation. The interviews provide a personal look into how beyond marches, these brave women aimed to provide education through spreading of literature, as well as working as relief workers during wartime and helping to rescue their Jewish friends after Nazi Germany had invaded.
Groenewegen’s addition of other contemporaneous clippings of footage of life in the Netherlands in the 1930s adds another level of contextual depth to the piece. Footage showing women doing arduous domestic work, as well as a glimpse into the process of making dolls of girls, paint a picture of the societal expectations that piled on these women as they fought for the better good. Groenewegen juxtaposes this with footage of men in munitions factories and the fascist marches as the impending evil of war slowly crept up at the time.
Beyond war and gender, Remanence (2024) also introduces the theme of memory to great effect. Whilst the interview audio is played, the footage is slowed and sped up, often fading and quickly cutting away leaving only shards of light or even complete darkness. These audiovisual choices reflect upon how these women, already in their eighties at the time of recording, empathically try to piece together remnants of their memories of their movement, and rue on how they were forced to forget them for their own safety during wartime.
Like many women in historic movements all around the world, their voices have been forcibly muted for so long. When amplifying these first hand accounts from these trailblazing activists, Remanence (2024) most importantly manages to remind us how history can be forgotten, if not careful, may that be by force or by the ticking of time. (Aradi Ghalizha) (Ed/Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Remanence
Sabine Groenewegen | 22 Min | 2024 | Netherlands
Official Selection for Spektrum
Festival Film Dokumenter 2024
Screening Schedule
Nov. 2 | 19:00 WIB | Militaire Societeit, TBY
Nov. 7 | 19:00 WIB | Amphitheater, TBY
