50 bios Sneek on film including exhibition

Sneek on Film

So much film footage from the 1920s and 1930s has been preserved of few medium-sized cities in the Netherlands. At the screenings of the film Sneek on Film, Sneker historian Alice Booij will be present as "explicateur.

The Fries Film and Audio Archive (FFAA) has acquired a series of very old serial films of the town of Sneek. The collection constitutes unique historical heritage. So much film footage from the 1920s and 1930s has been preserved from few medium-sized towns in the Netherlands. "In those years, nitrate films in particular were used, which are very fragile," Jurjen Enzing of the FFAA knows. "Many films from this era were lost as a result. Surprisingly, the films from Sneek were still in particularly good condition." Digitizing nitrate films is a costly business. The municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân was willing to finance the process. The Fries Scheepvaart Museum then described all the images in detail.

Twenty-five years in a vault
The fifteen cans of nitrate films about Sneek were in a safe at Haghe Film in Amsterdam for twenty years. They were probably left there in the early 1990s by the Miedema family, a large northern cinema family with a branch in Sneek, among other places. During a cleanup, a Haghe Film employee discovered the film cans and he turned them over to the FFAA. Haghe Film digitized the fragile films in top quality at the FFAA's request.

The images from the 1920s and 1930s were made by several major film production companies of the time (Polygoon, Pathé, Orion), and were presumably shown in Sneker cinemas. They provide a fascinating and incisive look at several major festivities in the town of Sneek during the interwar period. The oldest film dates from 1920. It is footage of the popular games on Queen's Day in Sneek on September 1. Also special are the images of the 'Grote Winkelfeesten' from 1922. A motley procession of cars and people pass through the town. They form a comical advertising parade of local stores and businesses; the public turned out en masse for it.
Furthermore, there are shots of a historical parade, a cattle auction, a visit of Queen Wilhelmina to a sailing competition, and various other sports competitions. For example, the promotion of v.v. Sneek in 1932 to the highest division in district North.

Exhibition
The digitized film footage will premiere Friday afternoon, October 11, at CineSneek, the place where the Miedema family operated one of their cinemas. The release of the film is simultaneously the opening of the exhibition Kiek, dit maakt Sneek of the Fries Scheepvaart Museum and the Vereniging Historisch Sneek. This exhibition is about the activity in Sneek through the years, and makes grateful use of the newly surfaced images.

Research
The discovery of the nitrate films also prompted research into Sneek's film and cinema history. Film scholar Nynke Bruinsma (research master RUG - specialization: early cinema) received a fellowship for this at Tresoar, the historical and literary center of Fryslân. At the presentation of the film footage on October 11, Nynke will briefly take those present through the Sneker cinema history of the 1920s.

Screenings
Following the presentation, a compilation of the nitrate films will be screened by CineSneek on October 16, 18 and 20 at 3 p.m. At those screenings, Sneker historian Alice Booij will be present as "explicateur. Tickets are on sale at the cinema box office and online. A visit to the Fries Scheepvaartmuseum & the exhibition 'Kiek this makes Sneek' is included in the price.