His Name Is My Name

  • Eline Jongsma, Kel O'Neill
  • Netherlands
  • 2022
  • 33
  • Digital
  • World Premiere
  • DocLab: Nervous Systems, IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling, Focus: Around Masculinity

Eline Jongsma’s great-grandfather was known as “Crazy Gerrit.” This was a rather innocent nickname considering who he actually was: the ruthless, violent mayor of the town of Krommenie, Netherlands, during the Second World War, and a fanatical member of the NSB—the Dutch Nazi party. After the war ended, his children disowned him out of shame, and his great-granddaughter grew up unaware of his existence. But no secret can stay buried forever.

In this animated, Instagram-based series, Jongsma and her filmmaking partner Kel O’Neill search through archives and family memories to create a fractured portrait of Crazy Gerrit and his legacy. While each of its 10 episodes can stand alone, the whole forms an ingenious, kaleidoscopic look at history, guided by a propelling soundtrack that compels you to keep watching.

Artist duo Jongsma + O’Neill focus less on Gerrit’s motivations than on creating a chronicle of war and intergenerational guilt. This is a story about remembering and forgetting, and the ways in which the past makes itself felt in the present.

Credits

  • 33
  • Spoken languages: English
Director
Eline Jongsma, Kel O'Neill
Production
Jongsma + O'Neill
Key collaborator
Bas Kortholt for Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork
Co-production
Bas Vroege for Paradox
Animation
Jure Brglez

IDFA history

2022
World Premiere
DocLab: Nervous Systems
IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling
Focus: Around Masculinity

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IDFA history

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