Video Projects & Documentaries
I use sound and vision to tell the story of the people I have met. The video camera has become a method of communication, a way to explore the culture and life in which I find myself and my understanding of the world as well as a way of self-exploration.
My work is usually about artists like myself and the unique worlds which they have created. I produce films that are 15 to 30 min- long which deal with my favorite genre – the Portrait. Compared to the static depiction of my paintings and photographic portraits, video gives me a more complete picture of the subject. Voice, movement and thought patterns bring the portrait of the subject to life. Video introduces a fourth dimension that I find particularly compelling.
“How it feels to be weightless and to be released from gravity, to arrive in emptiness with empty hands, to break free from all ties, to be far from the fast chaotic city life? Back to yourself, back to your element. This desire became reality in my video ‘In The Vacuum’.”
“Lucy Besson is fascinated with video stills and the way it relates to the medium of photography. In a way, these experiments within the vacuum between still photography and the moving image can be seen as a continuation of those by the Surrealist movement in the 1920s.” – GUP Magazine, Amsterdam
“Award-winning experimental film producer Lucy Besson depicts intimacy, quite literally, in a new light. Her short film, “In the Vacuum,” experiments with negative space to show the slow gestation of the body after birth, as it continues its movements and metamorphoses, throughout life.” – Claudia Moscovici Duration: 4.24min
Playlist
“Who am I? What am I ? Why do I do what I do?” These are questions that the Russian born artist asks herself in the autobiographical documentary “Create Your Personal Myth”(2006). It is both a self-portrait and an analysis of her achievements as an artist, as a woman and as an immigrant. In the film she offers her story to her son who was born in Netherlands and doesn’t yet want to know about the country from where his parents came . Her little boy is embarrassed about his background and the language his parents speak at home. His mother finds a way to tell him about her self. She believes that her life story, her “personal myth”, can inspire and change her son.
Deze korte documentaire gaat over de fascinatie voor de kunst van Nijmeegse kunstenaar Alexander Bobkin. In het interview spreken kunstverzamelaars Ad en Guusje Sitsen over hun liefde voor de kunst, die is gegroeid tot echte verslaving. Hoe dit komt vertellen zij in de korte film “Omringd door kunst”. Regie en uitvoering: Lucy Besson Picture © 2019, Nijmegen/NL
This is a fragment from the short documentary “Henk Hage”(duration 17min.) I shot this video in 2005, when Henk was working on a comprehensive range of his self-portraits in oils on panels ( now more than 200 works). In his interview he told me about his fascination with Rembrandt’s self-portraits and also about his own water colours. For this video portrait I used his favourite music by the famous Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina played by the Dutch cellist Hans Woudenberg.
Some artists need to travel far away to gain their inspiration. Others are able to admire the little piece of land near their house all their lives and constantly create new images of it. Why does the land of Maas and Waal remain an inexhaustible source of inspiration to the Dutch artist Harrie Gerritz ? To get the answer to this question I visited Harrie in his studio in Wijchen in 2008 when he told me his remarkable life story. I was lucky to have taken my video camera with me! Duration of the documentary “Homeland of Harrie Gerritz”: 26 min.
Between the years 1485 and 1510, the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the famous miracle play Mariken of Nimwegen was written. To this day its author has remained unknown. How is it possible that an anonymous Medieval tale about a deal between a young girl and the devil, written long before Goethe’s Faust, still has a presence in our modern world and is inspiring artists today? The documentary Mariken (2009) shows us how contemporary artists work and think. The search for a new visual language leads the artists who illustrate a new edition of the medieval tale of Mariken to surprising discoveries. In this film norms and values are reflected upon and reconsidered.
Duration of the documentary MARIKEN : 35 min.
The list of cast and crew Production: Serge Stommels, Lucy Besson Director, Script, Photography, Editing, Sound mix: Lucy Besson Artists-participants of the project: Alexander Bobkin, Diederik Grootjans, Harrie Gerritz, Jos van Gessel Foto-model( Mariken): Katja Kuptsova Music: Sofia Gubaidulina, Caccini “Ave Maria” vocal-ensemble NEVA (St.-Petersburg/ Russia), solistin: E. Vedeneeva
Klaas Gubbels (Rotterdam, 19 January 1934) is a Dutch artist, currently living in Arnhem . He is best known for his still lifes of tables, chairs and coffee pots. I shot this documentary in 2004. Duration: 24min. I went to Klaas Gubbels’ studio in Arnhem with just one question in mind: “Isn’t it boring to create the same images of tea & coffee pots all your life?” And he told me many interesting things about his life and work. It was really fascinating for me to be surrounded by all the different kinds of coffee pots created by Klaas Gubbels.
Klaas Gubbels (Rotterdam, 19 January 1934) is a Dutch artist, currently living in Arnhem . He is best known for his still lifes of tables, chairs and coffee pots. I shot this documentary in 2004. Duration: 24min. I went to Klaas Gubbels’ studio in Arnhem with just one question in mind: “Isn’t it boring to create the same images of tea & coffee pots all your life?” And he told me many interesting things about his life and work. It was really fascinating for me to be surrounded by all the different kinds of coffee pots created by Klaas Gubbels.
This is a fragment from the documentary “Unsilent canvases” (2002) about the Russian/Dutch artist Alexander Bobkin. Duration of the film: 55min. In this fragment Klaus van de Locht, a well known artist and creator of “Labyrinth” on the Waalkade in Nijmegen/NL, talks about his friendship with Alexander Bobkin. Klaus was already very ill when I went to his studio for the video shoot. In this last interview he shared his thoughts about shamans and about death… 10 months later Klaus van de Locht passed away.
This is a fragment from the documentary “The Portrait” (2009), duration: 28min. In working on this film I wanted not only to share my experience in the making of portrait commissions with others, but also to understand the phenomena of portraiture itself. Why is this age-old genre so popular in modern times? Why can a painted portrait of yourself hold such a great fascination for you? It was with these questions that I met up again with some of those people whose portraits I have painted. I especially like this film because somehow it perfectly mirrors who I am.
Alona Swintsova( 1953), formerly a Russian theatre & film actress, gives drama lessons at a school in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. Why can the children understand her strange Dutch and why are they so enthusiastic about Alona and her lessons? Because of her artistic background in comedy ? Or, maybe simply because of her human nature, her personality? …It really doesn’t matter if you are a very good and a clever artist…
Between the years 1485 and 1510, the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the famous miracle play Mariken of Nimwegen was written. To this day its author has remained unknown. How is it possible that an anonymous Medieval tale about a deal between a young girl and the devil, written long before Goethe’s Faust, still has a presence in our modern world and is inspiring artists today? Maybe Alexander Bobkin, Nijmegen contemporary artists and photographer, can answer this question? He was invited to illustrate a new edition of the tale of Mariken.