The film, a personal vision

radio interview

radio interview with Digna Sinke

DVD box

A DVD box with all four films on Tiengemeten (including Wistful Wilderness) can be obtained from sngfilm@xs4all.nl for € 40 including VAT and excluding postage and packaging. Dutch spoken, English subtitles. With bilingual booklet.

A DVD of Wistful Wilderness can be obtained for € 15 including VAT and excluding postage and packaging. Dutch spoken, English/French/German subtitles. Also English spoken version.
SNG Film

The documentary WISTFUL WILDERNESS - Tiengemeten from agriculture to nature | 1996- 2009 by Digna Sinke (screenplay and direction) has won the prize for Best Documentary at the 28th Festival International du Film d’Environnement in Paris. A € 5.000,- reward is linked to the prize. www.iledefrance.fr/fife-english/news/international-environmental-film-festival/digna-sinke-laureate-du-prix-du-coumentaire-2010/

TIENGEMETEN: a long term project

In 1994 Digna Sinke started research on a documentary about the island of Tiengemeten. She then wrote a film plan for the Dutch Film Fund. She wanted to follow the planned development of the agricultural area into a nature reserve over a longer period. She shot her first material in October 1996.
In 1998, the short documentary Tiengemeten, A Provisional Report was screened at the Nederlands Film Festival.
The full-length documentary Tiengemeten Part 1 followed developments between 1996 and 2001: most farmers left the island, while the project organisation worked on a plan for nature development. That film was first screened during the 2001 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, was broadcast by NPS TV and screened at festivals in Athens, Houston, Catania (Italy), Montreal, Paris and Rouen.
The next episode, Tiengemeten 2001 – 2006, shows how the landscape changed slowly but surely. The fields made way for fallow land. The old farm sheds that lost their purpose fell into decay.
A detailed plan for nature development was ready, but its execution had not yet started. For a long time there was uncertainty about finance. And one farmer was left on the island, with a leasehold contract that has not yet ended. As long as he stayed, the project could not be started. In the end, he moved off the island and work was able to start.
The film was premiered at the Nederlands Film Festival 2006 and a shortened version was broadcast by NPS TV in 2007.

Part 3, NEW TIENGEMETEN, was broadcast 4 March 2010 by NPS television (Netherlands)

The feature length documentary WISTFUL WILDERNESS (1996 - 2009) had its world premiere at the Nyon festival Visions du Reel.
Other festivals: HotDocs Toronto, Athens International Film Festival, États généraux du film documentaire Lussas (France),
Nederlands Film Festival, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg,
Festival International du Film d'Environnement (Paris), DocPoint - Helsinki, Environmental Film Festival EKO OKO Sarajevo, International Women's Film Festival Dortmund

The theatrical release started in the Netherlands in September 2010.
In France the film is released in 2011 by Documentaire sur Grand Ecran.

trailer WISTFUL WILDERNESS

(by Digna Sinke)

When I read in the paper in late 1993 about plans to develop nature on Tiengemeten, I was immediately prompted to think about making a film. This may have been the opportunity for me to make a film about the landscape I had been planning. The landscape of Tiengemeten was quite similar to the landscape of my childhood on Schouwen & Duiveland and Sint Philipsland: long straight roads, dikes as horizon. That landscape was possibly to be changed dramatically in the coming ten years. It was to turn from agricultural area into wilderness. I wanted to try and chronicle that process on film.

The Dutch Film Fund made it possible for me to investigate the possibility of making a documentary that would at least involve a production time of ten years. I wrote a script that was submitted by Studio Nieuwe Gronden to the Dutch Film Fund for realisation. The commission made a positive recommendation, but the board rejected the plan because it was not certain that anything would really happen on Tiengemeten. In addition, support was made conditional on the involvement of a broadcasting company. However none of the TV broadcasters NCRV, VARA, NPS, EO, RVU or VPRO were interested in the scenario ("an artistic documentary that should be shown on a silver screen not in the living room").

A small grant from the ThuisKopie Fonds eventually enabled me to start shooting the existing situation in October 1996: AMEV (Fortis Investments) was owner of the area inside the dikes, 700 hectares, with 6 farms that mainly grew wheat, potatoes, sugarbeet and onions. Natuurmonumenten owned the mud flats beyond the dikes.

Our first day of shooting was on the 18th October 1996. A sunny autumn day. With a borrowed Mehari, the best car for the purpose, we made travelling shots on the road with the poplars (Grevesweg). And to film changes in the landscape over the coming years, we marked several camera angles with an iron pole we knocked into the ground. We used a notebook to jot down the height of the camera, the lens and the frame.

18 October 1996, the first day of shooting camera-assistant Corian van Berkel hammers a rod in the ground at the end of the road to the west to mark a fixed camera position; cameraman Goert Giltaij watches

In July that year, the provincial authorities decided on the "begrenzingenplan natuurontwikkeling Tiengemeten" (outline plan for nature development on Tiengemeten). That meant a start could be made with the plan to turn Tiengemeten into a haven of nature where there would be no room left for agriculture. Many people had always thought things would not turn out this way, but now they had to review their positions. The AMEV decided to sell Tiengemeten as of 1 January 1997 for 33 million guilders (almost 15 million euros) to Natuurmonumenten.

On 6 March 1997, we filmed the first visit made by a delegation from Natuurmonumenten to the island. Bert Verver and Lauw Reineveld, assisted by Henk Maijer, came to see what was facing them. With Bert Verver, we filmed a first conversation about the state of affairs on the junction by Grevesweg. (We were to film similar conversations at the same spot several times in late years).
Bert told us they wanted to start negotiating to end the lease of the remaining farmers. Alternative farms were sought for the farmers who would have to leave Tiengemeten.
It was a dramatic and insecure period for those involved. The weekend visitors to Tiengemeten did not know what was waiting for them either.

The summer of 1997 was a beautiful summer. For three farmers, it would be the last time they would harvest on Tiengemeten. We filmed the combine harvesters crossing the country and then the trucks full of grain being weighed on the weigh-bridge before unloading into the awaiting ship. The children of Tiengemeten were swimming in the harbor with the children of the skipper.

12 August 1997 Maarten Kramer films how Leen Vos reaps wheat, Jan Wouter van Reijen records the sound

On 18 December 1997, the first family moved, the Pons family left the Helena Hoeve for Wieringermeer. That day was recorded on film. Later that winter, the Smits family (Louise Hoeve) moved as well as the Hage family, that had occupied the Marguerita Hoeve for generations.

18 December 1997 the Pons family poses with the removals men for the local paper

Two days before the first people moved, room 1502 in the Maas Building in Rotterdam saw the foundation of what was later to be called the Project Organisation Tiengemeten. Natuurmonumenten was owner of the island, but such a large-scale plan could not be realised without consultation with other parties involved: the Province of South Holland, the rural district of Korendijk, Rijkswaterstaat, the Dienst Landelijk Gebied the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries. The Steering Party was to make major decisions, alongside which a Project Group was founded to complete preparatory work, while the more practical work was done in the Layout Workgroup and the Communication Workgroup.
I attended many of the meetings and we also filmed several, but so far none of this material has been used. It is not easy to put meetings into pictures. A real or film last 10 minutes, a meeting lasts three hours. It is very rare for the core of a problem to be effectively summarised in a single sentence, the kind of soundbites we like on film. That may also not be the purpose of meetings.

For more than a year, thanks to the grant from the ThuisKopie Fonds, we were able to make film recordings. We used super16 film because history has proven that this material lasts for years. And for a lengthy project that is important.
That money was now finished. A film was edited from the material shot that was a kind of work in progress, entitled Tiengemeten, a provisional report. The film was intended for the ThuisKopie Fonds. At the same time, it offered an opportunity to try and interest are broadcasting company in order to comply with the conditions of the Dutch Film Fund..
Tiengemeten, a provisional report was screened during the 1998 Nederlands Film Festival 1998.

12 April 1997 the end of the road to the western (fixed camera position 1)

NPS TV was interested. This meant that, at the end of 1998, it was possible to apply for a grant from the Dutch Film Fund, the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund and the CoBo Fund. That proved successful. However NPS TV did not want to wait 10 years. They were interested in two 50-minute parts, at the first to be broadcast in 2001. In addition, a full-length documentary had to be completed for the Dutch Film Fund in 2007.

In the meantime, work on Tiengemeten continued. It was very important for the Project Organisation to come up with a good plan. That needed research. The RIZA (Lelystad) was brought in to do that. This was called the "reconnaissance phase". Afterwards that would be followed by the "vision forming" and finally the "design phase". Roel Posthoorn co-ordinated the work. He was also chairman of the guiding "core team" that largely consisted of experts from the RIZA, with Harm Piek from Natuurmonumenten.
Their work was recorded on film on several occasions: on 19 January 1999, the core team came to examine the state of the ground on Tiengemeten, and on 3 and 4 June, there was a "creative session" when a large number of experts from outside were asked for their opinions about the plans. Prior to that, we filmed the preparations in Lelystad.
In the end, we were also to film the dissolution of the core team on 7 December 2000.

7 December 2000 the last meeting of the core team, Harm Piek talks about grazing

In the autumn of 1999, the "reconnaissance phase" could be concluded: there was a report entitled Exploring Tiengemeten, in five parts: hydrology, soil, ecology, landscape and cultural history, and the buildings. The last part was completed by the Stichting Historisch Boerderij Onderzoek (Historic Farm Research Foundation).

The buildings formed a problem that became the focus of the first part of the film. The large farm barns shape the silhouette of Tiengemeten, they are monumental buildings, but intended for use in agriculture. What use are they in a nature reserve? Maintaining and restoring them would cost a lot of money. A second creative session was dedicated to questions like this on 7 June 2000. This too was recorded on film.

Three weeks later, the plan for nature development was presented to the inhabitants of Tiengemeten ("Development Vision Tiengemeten") sketching the outline: the island would be divided into three moods: Wilderness, Wealth and Wistfulness. The existing building would be preserved as much as possible, a solution would be found for most weekend visitors. Almost all the farms had meanwhile left: only the Vos brothers (at Irenehoeve) were still left.
That was beginning to worry the Project Organisation more and more. I remember well how people said optimistically early on that they wanted to start by taking over the largest farm on the island, that of the Vos brothers. It was still not possible to come to terms with them. And the agreement was that no start could be made with the nature development plan until the last farmer had left.

1 July 2000 Roel Posthoorn presents the development plans in the barn of the Marguerita Hoeve

The film Tiengemeten Part 1 ends at this point.
In June and July 2001, the first part for NPS TV was edited. The 16 mm material was scanned to Digibeta and Betacam SP, and was edited digitally on Lightworks by Stefan Kamp.
It was a difficult period. My partner René Scholten, the producer of the film, became severely ill. We had known each other since the Film Academy and live together since 1969.

The International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) selected Tiengemeten part 1 for the programme Highlights of the Lowlands. On 26 November 2001, the film was premièred. René was unfortunately not there, he had died for weeks earlier.
The film, primarily intended for NPS TV, was well received and selected for Docuzone, the new project to show documentaries on DVD in film theatres. The first screening took place on 2 May 2002.
NPS TV broadcast the film on 30 June 2002.

The film was screened on 28 April and 30 June in Paris at the Cinéma des Cinéastes by Documentaire sur Grand Ecran. They are also screening Tiengemeten elsewhere in France.

In the meantime, we have continued following developments on Tiengemeten on film. In other words, collecting material for part two. We are doing that in the same way, with a very small crew. Usually there are three of us: a cameraman, Sound Man and me as director. According to the budget, we have about five shooting days per year. As they are separate days, it is impossible to keep working with the same crew. I would rather set out with people who are able to cope with wind and weather and enjoy eating a cheese sandwich in the open air which they made that morning.

18 April 2002 picnic by the blown-down tree at the end of the road to the west (left to right) Sander den Broeder (sound), Digna Sinke, Jan Wich (camera) (photo taken with the self timer)

The impasse in which Tiengemeten has found itself since 2000 is not easy to visualise. Not much happens and what has happened could not be film. Agreement had meanwhile been reached with the Vos brothers: they were able to carry on farming Tiengemeten until January 2007. The relief that a final date was known however did not make up for the disappointment that the original planning had to be jettisoned. That had quite a few consequences. Radio silence was declared on information to the outside world. Yet we were given permission to attend consultation between the Project Organisation with Dutch Upper House member Leen van der Sar on 26 April 2001. The material was to be broadcast only years later in Tiengemeten part 2. It was to be expected that all the problems would be solved by that time.

On a smaller scale, things started to change on the island. The western part of Brienenswaard was not cultivated for the first time in 2001. On 18 April 2001, we filmed the fields where you could still see the stems of the harvested grain among the wild plants that were flourishing. In May 2002, the ditches were sealed off and drainage stopped (we filmed that too). As a result, the land is now underwater during wet periods. Of course, this has enormous consequences for flora and fauna.

2 November 2002 the road to the west

In the spring of 2003, the rural district of Korendijk started work on a new zoning scheme for Tiengemeten. The island had always been agricultural. That was now to change in "nature". We filmed as Bert Verver and Henk Maijer of Natuurmonumenten studied the plans in their small local office in the Louise Hoeve, and how Gerrit Nieuwenhuis of the council and Patrick Pieters of Rijkswaterstaat explained everything to the inhabitants and weekend visitors a few weeks later.
That afternoon, it started raining very hard. We drove to the western end of the island, where the road ends by the dike to shoot from our "fixed point". An endless, green landscape lay in front of us. The poplar that had blown down two years earlier had grown green leaves again after all. Beside it, the picnic table in the pouring rain. It was very special.

Diary, May 2004

In September 2003, we filmed a day in the potato harvest. We were basically filming how the harvested potatoes were stored in a barn by the Idahoeve. The dumper trucks drove back and forth, the potatoes were put on a conveyor belt, the largest items of rubbish were taken out by hand and another conveyor belt distributed the potatoes evenly high above the barn, at least if you operated the controls of the machine properly. It had previously struck me that agriculture is largely a matter of logistics: make sure you have exactly the right number of trucks, that can be unloaded on time, so no one has to wait. The grain harvest is no different.
We focused on this process so much that we were too late to film the real harvest properly. That's funny. That is really documentary making. You think you came for one thing, but something else crops up.
The rest of the day was just as unpredictable. We were to go to the northern reed mound that is in the Blanke Slikken. When reeds were still cut – of course it had to be low water, otherwise you couldn't walk there – the reeds were stored on a mound so they could be picked up at high water. In the recreation plan that was just being developed, this mound was to form part of a walking route. I thought it would be nice to take a look now. But it was September. Reeds, golden rod, willow herb and mallow had reached their maximum height: Dutch jungle. We took a path, but the undergrowth made the mound completely invisible to us. The path – made by cows of course – twisted and turned, but did not take us to the reed mound. We never reached it.

So we had to try that again. I thought it was a good idea to ask the project manager Henk Maijer to come along. On Tuesday 11 May we were to make a second attempt. We drove with Henk along the road to the West, took our things from the car and headed down the path through the Blanke Slikken. The reed hill was easily visible. On the top of the hill is a striking apple tree, shaped by the wind. Henk led the way. He had not been here for about five years and had checked with his colleagues where we should turn right into the jungle. The undergrowth was now much easier to cope with, but Henk soon came back. This path ended up at a creek. We had to take a different one. When we had crossed a ditch – with camera and tripod – Henk found a very clear path that led more or less straight to the mound.

apple tree on top of the reed mound, May 2004

Where everything is flat, any rise in the landscape is an experience. In the Alps, three metres is nothing, but on Tiengemeten it's just like Mont Blanc. What a breathtakingly beautiful view. Fresh green jungle with remains of old reeds and here and there bushes and small trees. To the north, the Hoekse Waard, to the south, Goeree Overflakkee. And the sound of wind and all kinds of marsh birds (reed warblers, blue throats). Henk explained how the footpath was to run in the future. The fact that it would be only for the real ramblers - it's quite a distance from the ferry - was a reassurance to me, to be honest. For something so special, you really have to make an effort.

Back on the dike, of course we again filmed our fixed point: the end of the road to the West. The poplar blown down by the wind has leaves again. Would it to carry on that way? By the fence, we came across Eduard. He told us enthusiastically that you could see carp spawning in the ditch some way off, outside the dike. We went to have a look. We’d never seen anything like that. The giant fish could make a spectacle of it. It's just very difficult to get it on film. They dived up and under, splashed around, but usually exactly where we were not. It would have been easy to spend the rest of the afternoon here. It was a paradise.

April 2005

A sharp boundary now runs across the island between agricultural land and derelict fields. Work is planned to start before the summer on turning Tiengemeten into a nature reserve, so I was eager to record what it looks like now. The asphalt roads will be removed and only the contractor knows exactly when. And at this moment in time, no one knows who the contractor will be. When there are no roads any more, it will be more complicated to move around with our equipment.
There was one spot I had wanted to film for a while: the spot where, before 1953, there was a hill which acted as a refuge. A hill that was already seen on maps in 1801. There is now nothing left apart from the ditch running in a beautiful semicircle. The hill is going to be rebuilt. Not as a refuge for cattle, but as the lookout point for holidaymakers. But how do you film a curve in a ditch?
Leen Vos allowed us to borrow his ladder and his Mercedes. On the field that is now barren for the first time and used to belong to Dirk Smits, we set up the ladder. From the top we had a better view of the ditch.

Jan Wich standing with a camera at the top of the ladder being held by Tom d'Angremond (8 April 2005)

It was a day with grey skies. An occasional shower. We had some food in the barn at Laurettehoeve. Part of the side had blown away. Everything looked disconsolate. Would it be possible to find investors for this beautiful spot? A lot needed to happen.
Years ago I had jotted down that I would like to shoot some footage from a tower wagon. I imagined I could look out over the dikes and really see how the island lies in the water. I needed to hurry, because to move a tower wagon around you also needed roads. The exercises with Leen’s ladder had convinced us that a high standpoint really could provide a different view. By chance, Natuurmonumenten also needed a tower wagon to do some work on the new roof of Suzannahoeve. We could then do some shooting on the previous day. The weather forecast was for good weather in the morning, but persistent rain was forecast for the afternoon. So we were to set out early. I got up at half past four, brought fresh bread rolls from the local baker, De Rond, and filled thermos cans with hot water. With Jan (cameraman) and Tom (soundman) we drove to Tiengemeten to catch the 8.15 very. As we travelled south, the weather got more sombre. As we reached the ferry, it started pouring with rain. Jan called the meteorological office. Yes, the rain had arrived a little earlier. We couldn’t do much else than return to Amsterdam. Grrr.
Three days later, we tried again. Now with Marc as cameraman. Again plenty of grey skies, but no rain and – most important – no wind. Eduard (from Natuurmonumenten) explain to us how to operate the tower wagon. Prop it up, make sure it was level. Buttons, handles. Fortunately I fitted into the basket with Marc. So I was allowed to play with the buttons and of course Marc operated the camera. It was wonderful to ride is beside the poplars on Grevesweg with their light green young leaves. And beyond the dikes we could indeed see the water.

Marc Homs puts the camera tripod on the tower wagon for a shot of the Mariapolder (29 April 2005)

We filmed all day in various locations spread over the whole island. That went fine. I envisage an impressive scene in the film. With slowly moving images of the landscape. That just before the bustle that was to come.
Our last shot was to be beside the barns of de Margueritahoeve and Louisehoeve. Margueritahoeve with its new thatched roof, Louisehoeve listed for demolition. We set out in the tower wagon, installed the camera and did a few practice lifts. Until the moment when we were right at the top: however I moved the handles, we couldn’t go down again. Was the battery empty? Had we done anything wrong? There we were. Spending the night atop a tower wagon would not be pleasant.

Marc Homs and Digna Sinke are briefly unable to descend (29 April 2005)

Tom tried to activate the emergency descent, but really we needed a spanner. Fortunately after some time the ferry came our way and ferryman Huib let us borrow his tools. So we were able to come down. But we weren’t able to shoot the scene. Ach, you can’t have it all your own way.

It’s usually windy on Tiengemeten, but 31 August 2005 was a beautiful, wind-still late summer day. Today the digging was going to start in earnest. At the spot where six months earlier we had stood on a ladder to film the semicircular ditch that surrounded what had been the Vliedberg bank, a huge machine was now digging out a layer of ground. The earth being moved was thrown up alongside the ditch to form the start of a new hill. It was fascinating to walk over the ground that had freshly been exposed, about 70 centimetres below ground level. How long since this ground had been touched? Since the Great Flood of 1953? Longer?

Digging to reconstruct the Vliedberg (31 August 2005)

It has been a cold wet summer. The bad weather meant that not all the wheat had been mowed. Leen Vos was now busy with his combine harvester. Once before, in 1997, we also filmed the wheat harvest on 13 August. Camera reel 19, tape 6. Now we have reached reel 144, tape 48. The very last wheat that will ever grow on Tiengemeten was harvested today.
We also filmed a pile of rubble between two sheds: that must be the old weighbridge house that had been demolished. And of course our fixed standpoint at the end of the road to the west. We could no longer find our pole. It had sunk an unfathomable depth into the ground. Not much was left of the picnic table. But the fallen poplar still had its leaves. However I heard that the other poplars along Grevesweg, were to be cut down before the winter. Time was suddenly moving very fast.

Soundman Tom d'Angremond and the combine harvester of Leen Vos (31 August 2005)

Diary, 4 January 2006

Before the end of the year, the poplars had all disappeared from the east side of the T-junction. On Wednesday 4 January, we went to Tiengemeten to film the continuation of the work. It was beautiful winter weather. The sun shone in the southwestern region of the Netherlands. The rest of the country was under grey clouds.
Basically we wanted to film how the last of Leen Vos' chicory was taken off the island. By ship, as always: the Eben Haezer belonging to skipper Adri. But the vessel had already left.
We quickly drove on to the T-junction. Of course we knew what we would see, and yet we were amazed. Not only had a row of trees been cut down: the whole landscape has totally changed. We again filmed our 360° pan, from the middle of the T-junction. One of our fixed points. It had changed incredibly. It was unrecognisable.

Cameraman Jan Wich is filming at the T-junction without trees, 4 January 2006

Further along, the poplars were still standing. The men from Van Weert Rondhout BV were eating a sandwich in their car but were about to get back to work. In the meantime we filmed Leen Vos' old refrigeration plant, the tracks in the land facing it and the western part of Grevesweg where the trees were still standing.
And then we positioned ourselves to film a falling tree. It was going to fall towards us. We were standing at a safe distance. A slice was cut out just above the ground. Buzz, buzz, that happens very fast. Then the snapper drove up (sorry, I don't know what the machine is called), ready to push gently against the trunk. The sawman sawed through the trunk from the other side. The snapper pushed and wham - the tree fell with a thunderous din. Right beside the road, easy to deal with. The large branches were cut off and then the snapper came to drag away the trunk. It was sawn into pieces a little way off. And then it was time to move on to the next tree.
It affected us. It's difficult to find the right words.

Falling tree, 4 January 2006

When everyone went home, we carried on filming, until it got dark.
At the house of Leen and Mariska Vos we filmed the Christmas lights hanging in front of the kitchen window. Behind the steamed-up pane, Mariska was cooking.
We were allowed to see and film that. Nothing lasts for ever. Almost for the last time.

I have now also started cutting part 2 of the film, with Albert Elings. We have already looked at the material from 2001. It wasn't too bad. But the real work still has to start.

3 February 2006

Today is the day when Leen, Mariska and the children plan to move. Their new home may not quite be ready yet but, if everything goes according to plan, water and electricity will be cut off from their house on Grevesweg next week.
Of course we have to cover the move. Fortunately my regular crew (Jan and Tom) are available. Tom went along to Tiengemeten ten years ago on our first day of shooting. Filming something for so long and seeing all the changes: that is quite something.
It is a grey day with misty panoramas. We drink our last cup of coffee in the Vos family kitchen. Then there is plenty of work. Lifting and packing. The removal truck is due at 2 p.m. to load everything.
We didn't want to get in the way all the time. Ferryman Huib had already told us what else had happened on the island.
In Middenpolder, large plant was used to dig. We drove that way. The trees along Grevesweg had been removed, but also lots of other trees and spinneys. Around an old shed, a privet hedge had grown so large that the shed was hidden from view: now it looked bare and deserted.

Shed by the road to the East, 3 February 2006

Further on, not far from the Suzanna Farm, we film the work. A broad ditch is being dug on the boundary with the Old Polder and by the dike gigantic machines are digging out earth and dumping it against the dike.
In order to get a little closer we drive onto the site. The ground by the entrance is frozen so that shouldn't be a problem, we think to ourselves. We film the work. The machines seem to be performing a grand ballet performed to a strict choreography. Then we want to return to Leen's farm to film the last few moments of the move. But our car is stuck solid in the melting, greasy, fertile clay. We try everything using straw and grass to get a grip, but we can't budge the car. Fortunately the works foreman Syl Verboon is close by. We filmed him while he was surveying the land. And thank goodness he is able to rescue us. He pulls us out of the mud with a colleague.

Syl Verboon tows the camera car out of the mud, 3 February 2006

On Leen's drive we film the last large items being taken out of the house and loaded into the removals truck. And then we film the large truck driving through the misty landscape, along a treeless Grevesweg. And then onto the ferry. The ferry sets sail, heavily laden, deep in the grey water. We continue to watch as the truck drives off on the other side onto the dike and finally disappears from sight.

The ferry leaves Tiengemeten

And the film crew? We can stay on a little longer. We just carry on, shooting what happens from time to time.

(to be continued)

29 August 2006

In April, we had filmed the construction of the earthen wall that will run across the island. And the new ditches in the Old Polder and the removal of the corrugated sheets containing asbestos in the cold store.
Then I went one more time without a film crew for the opening of the information centre on a stormy day in May.
After the building holiday in the summer, work was to start on stripping Irenehoeve, the former farm of the Vos brothers. We were going to film that. And we were planning to film an interview with Piet Stout, the new project manager.
The island was almost unrecognisable. The barn by Louisehoeve had been demolished, Helenahoeve had been given a new roof, quays had been built, ditches dug and the cold stores had disappeared. On that spot, the breaker was now standing, a huge machine in which chunks of concrete and asphalt roadway were thrown and that came out as pebbles and black sand.

29 August 2006: the breaker

Sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re not. It was a day of beautiful clouds. It had been a long time since we’d seen that. At the junction on Grevesweg we filmed our 360-degree pan, which we had first shot on 9 December 1996. Our markings with green and pink paint must be somewhere on the asphalt, but they had disappeared under the mud. For ten years we had stood under the trees but they were now gone. Only the clumps of poplars around Irenehoeve and Vos’ potato warehouse remained to orient ourselves. And an additional new point was now the “vliedberg”. This mound was much lower than I expected.

29 August 2006: the new mound ("vliedberg")

We could still reach Irenehoeve by car, but a little way on, the road stopped. You used to be able to drive on to what I always called the end of the road to the west. But that was now a ditch. To get there, we drove along the narrow row of paving slabs to the Western Centre, parked by what was once the Van den Berg farm and headed by foot along the dike to the poplar that had blown down. Cameraman Jan Wich and soundman Erik Langhout were prepared for such a walk. All the equipment was taken along in rucksacks. And the tripod could also be put on as a backpack.

We gave the Scottish Highland cattle with their calves a wide berth. At our fixed position, we filmed the way the clouds made shadows across the empty landscape. We decided to walk back along the new ditch, in the hope that we would not have to cross any wide streams. But the streams had gone and we walked back straight across the new wilderness. A yellow field of blossoming golden rods where once onions had stood. Yes, we filmed it.

29 August 2006: the end of the road to the west. The road has become a stream.

It was all so strange, so unreal. It seemed as if the sombreness that had repeatedly overcome us on previous visits had been replaced a little by fascination and curiosity. The beautiful clouds helped.

In a month’s time, the second part of the film entitled Tiengemeten 2001-2006 will have its première during the Nederlands Film Festival. Part one will also be shown again. What we filmed on this day is already for the sequel, which will be very different. At the office we are busy with invitations and organising the première. I hope that some people will like the film. Maybe I think it’s even more important that something is recorded of what there was. Just from respect for all that human labour that shaped this cultivated landscape.

14 februari 2007

In October we flew in a helicopter over Tiengemeten. It was a misty day. Normal people don’t try and shoot from the air on misty days, but it was quite impressive: a strange Mordor-like landscape.
But it was some time before we could do any more shooting. I had wanted to film rare ferns being planted, but I heard about it too late to get a crew together. Another subject on my list was making PQs. A PQ is a permanent quadrant, in this case 25 by 25 meter, intended to do research into future plant growth. Along the new creek, several of these quadrants are planned and Gerwin Geertse of the Nature Conservancy has to coordinate the monitoring in the years to come.
In the end it was February before the PQs were marked out. On 14 February, Gerwin was going to take a look.
There are hardly any days when it rains all the time. But this was one of those days. Gerwin had organised transport. We were able to ride along on a cart behind a tractor.

14 February 2007: Digna, Tom and Jan on the cart (Photo: Jan Wich)

But the tractor sank up to its axles in the mud on the excavated dike. So we continued on foot. Not far from the former farm of Leen Vos, an excavator was at work. Gerwin looked at the PQ and consulted Sil on the phone about how they should mark it. Poles are no good because the Highland cattle would rub against them. And if they walked around too much, that would have unintended effects on the flora. Maybe something metal should be put in the ground so the quadrant could be traced with a metal detector. After taking a look, Gerwin walked back. We filmed some more mud in the pouring rain.

14 February: sound man Tom standing on the PQ

28 February 2007

Our reason for travelling to Tiengemeten was a building meeting. This is a consultation session between the contractor and the client, the Dutch Ministry of Waterways. Like on the previous day’s shooting, we needed to catch the ferry at 8.15 a.m. That means setting my alarm clock for 4.30. Fortunately the bakery De Rond is already open at that time so I can buy fresh bread rolls for our lunch. With cheese and pepper pate. I also have to boil water for two large thermoses. On 14 February we found ourselves in a 5-mile tailback. That took us an extra 3/4 hour. We missed the ferry. Today Jan slept through two alarm clocks. We had to phone him to get him up. But this time we made it.
The weather forecast was for storm, rain, hail and thunder. Maybe with a few breaks of sun in between. Anything is better than just plain grey.
The building meeting was inside the barn at Margueritahoeve. We were given coffee, everyone was nice, but we were not going to be allowed to film everything. Certain agenda items were too sensitive for that. It was still early when we found ourselves standing outside again.
It wasn’t raining. At first it was grey with light patches but then the sky cleared completely. We filmed young plants in the Old Polder and the new hardwood bridge over the creek where the first side road once was. Then we were going to look for the place where the old T-junction was. By now the roads have disappeared and have largely become creeks. Would we be able to find the T-junction? It was obvious anyway that we would have to go on foot.

28 February 2007: the new bridge

However very dark grey sky approached, preceded by rolling clouds. It was beautiful. We made all kinds of shots as quickly as we could. We climbed the dike, filmed the approaching storm and were just in time to reach the barn at Helenahoeve to shelter.
Later the weather cleared and we set off prepared for a stiff walk. Jan carried the camera, I carried the tripod and a rucksack with an extra cassette and Tom carried his sound equipment. We walked along the steel planking towards the South. On a hypothetical line between the lonely tree and Irenehoeve, the former T-junction must be found. It took some searching, but an old ditch and rubble from the remains of Grevesweg marked the spot where we once made our first shot at this point on 9 December 1996. Again we made our 360-degree pan. Tom and I tried to provide as much shelter as possible from the wind while Jan performed the complex camera movement. How different the landscape was now.

28 February 2007: lonely tree where the road used to bend

We walked on towards the southern dike. The steel planking had been removed here. The excavated dike was a wide track of mud. The waves of the Haringvliet channel had white horses and loomed threateningly towards the island. But the last section of dike still separated the new creek from the Haringvliet. This last section of dike is planned to be dug out at the end of March.
The storm really started blowing now. The wind tore the tripod from my hands and all three of us had to work hard to stay on our feet. And then we had to find their way back through the mud.
We missed the four o’clock ferry so we had time for a bowl of soup with biscuits in the office of the Nature Conservancy (Thanks!)
At five o’clock we took the ferry. Ferryman Huib let the vessel bounce on the waves.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

I had previously been with Gerwin Geertse of the Nature Conservancy when he accompanied two volunteers from the Hoekschewaards Landschap to make an inventory of what exactly was growing on the PQ squares that had been marked out especially along the new creek in order to “monitor” them. That was a beautiful journey through the young jungle. The flood opening linking the creek with the Haringvliet has not yet been made, so we were able to reach the other side of the creek on foot. It was quite a surprise to discover where the PQs were, because they had already been incorporated into the landscape. And two of them were more or less in the water so we were only able to study them with binoculars. I thought it would be a nice idea to film one of these inventories sessions at some stage.
On 1 August, they were going to look at the PQ we had seen being dug on 14 February in the pouring rain. Back then it was a bare stretch of mud.
Gerwin had organised a rowing boat and to be sure we have also brought a rubber inflatable with us.
It was quite an event to ferry six people and equipment across. The boat leaked a little, and our only oar was a shovel (which was in fact very good) and of course we had to get in

Digna, Jan and Tom take the equipment across (photo: Truus van Belle)

On the PQ, Rita and Truus studied the square, metre by metre, looking for everything that was growing. Celery-leaved buttercup, square-stalked willowherb, redshank. Nothing particularly special was discovered yet, but that didn’t really make any difference. It was a question of recording what was growing there now, right at the start.
Our film material ran out faster than we thought. We had to fill a new cassette, and so we went back to the car, our base camp. Gerwin took us across. Before our stroll back to the car, we first ate the lunch I had brought in my rucksack. That was fun. We were on one side of the creek; Truus, Rita and Gerwin were on the other side.

Filming on Tiengemeten is always a question of choosing what to do. First the Irenehoeve, I thought, the old farm of Leen Vos. We had already been close when we were standing on the PQ. Leen Vos’ PQ is even what Truus called it. Truus, Rita and Gerwin were meanwhile at work further along.
Jan inflated the rubber boat and we crossed the creek again.
It was very unreal to walk around there. On the meadow beside the house where Leen’s potbellied pigs always roamed, the grass was now growing very tall. Beside the large barn, the first saplings were appearing. The huge poplar trees filtered the light in unpredictable patches. The mood was fairy-tale. We took several shots and then went to see whether the plums in Leen’s orchard were already right.

When we returned to our rubber boat, that was already half uninflated on the bank. Fortunately Jan was just able to reach the other side in the saggy boat to blow it up again. It’s always an adventure, a day shooting on Tiengemeten.

Wednesday 4 June 2008

No, no, don’t think we stopped filming on Tiengemeten. After August 2007, we filmed on 6 September how the flood opening was first made. That moment was celebrated festively with all kinds of people involved, but actually it was all rubbish. An iron sheet was briefly removed revealing a pipe, but there was no question of digging a real flood opening yet. The contractor preferred to do that without an audience. That only actually happened more than a month later on 19 October 2007. There was hardly anyone there. Yes, a couple of real fans. That was the moment, once announced in 1993 with a headline in the newspaper: “On Tiengemeten, the dikes will be breached.” For me that was the start of a film. But Tiengemeten is already much more than just a film for me. It is part of my life.
In early October, we had filmed the 40th anniversary of Huib Bijl as the ferryman. It was a fantastic day and Huib had organised it magnificently. He had invited as many former inhabitants as possible and that turned the day into one big reunion. It was very special.

6 October 2007: Arjen and Huib sing a duet

The last day of the year, I went to look around Tiengemeten on my own. So I didn’t film, I just went to look at how it all looked. It was a sombre day. The lock really was restored now and the old granite poll that stood there had disappeared from the digging. The old supervisor’s house had been taped up with yellow insulation material. The trees around Nicolehoeve had been unlovingly sawn down and the Laurettehoeve was being converted drastically.
The New Year was to be a hectic and chaotic year for me. The feature film Atlantis, which I had been involved with for years, was to be realised. Tiengemeten was one of my sources of inspiration and basically I had written the whole script with Tiengemeten in mind as the location. But finding money for a film takes more time than completing plans for natural developments, so time had caught up with me. The Tiengemeten I wanted to use for my film no longer existed. I was now gathering alternative locations in the province of Zeeland. We were also going to film at Cromstrijen. And for one scene I was still able to use Tiengemeten: a scene on the reed hill with the little apple tree. We filmed there twice: on 25 March and on 5 May. On the first day of shooting, we were surprised by a snow shower, which provided a beautiful scene in the film. The second day of shooting was wonderfully pleasant. Beautiful weather and everybody was happy and cheerful. A feature film crew is very different from a documentary crew and having to walk for half an hour to reach the set (which is what we call the place where you’re going to shoot) is fairly unusual. The shooting has finished, but the film is not yet completed.

5 May 2008: shots for Atlantis, close to Reed Hill, Pitou Nicolaes (14) plays Xenia

In early June, a group of French people were to visit to exchange information about “monitoring”. In the Gironde region, not far from Bordeaux, is namely the Ile Nouvelle, also an island that once used to be agricultural land. I would like to film that visit. For 4 June, fieldwork was on the programme. Early in the morning, to begin with birds, then looking at the fish and finally the plants. That meant that, as a film crew, we were better off camping to be up in time in the morning. Jan in his small tent, me in my small tent and Tom in a tepee belonging to the campsite of Astrid and Wytze.
It was a beautiful evening when we arrived. The mosquitos made an impressive sound. Tom tried to record them, but they disappeared high into the sky.

The next day started with rain. The sky looked as if it would carry on raining all day, but it wasn’t that bad. It dried up and all day we were to have a silver-like grey light.

The French were impressed by the black-winged stilts and the spoonbills. We filmed as the researchers looked around and walked to the refuge mound. In order to study the fish, fyke nets had been put out a day in advance in the new creek by the last professional fishermen in the Haringvliet delta, the Nobel company. The men now brought in the fyke nets, sailed back to the bank where the catch was meticulously analysed. Everyone crowded around to see what had been brought in: giant bream, large eels, white bream, very small flounders and even a marbled goby that originated in the area of the Caspian and Black Sea, but has come West since the opening of the Mainz-Donau Canal.

4 June 2008, the men from the Nobel company raise the fyke nets

Of course we also filmed the demolished house at the Idahoeve. It was one of the oldest houses on the island, from the early years of reclamation. Unfortunately it had now been razed by the demolition company. Supposedly by accident. Accidentally demolishing a complete historic building when you only had to demolish a small lean-to? Very few people are going to believe that. Only the cellar was left. The only place in the house I had never been to. I went and took a look. It was quite a mess.

4 June 2008, the demolished house at the Idahoeve

Later in the afternoon, we tried to film something of the plant study, but we couldn’t get the images we were looking for. The silver light had disappeared, a harsh wind picked up. We hung around the old potato barn of Leen Vos and filmed what should be a ruin. The concept just isn’t clear to us. It still looks like a fairly random pile of rubbish. Nature is going to have to do its best to turn it into something beautiful. We shall see.

Diary – 31 July 2009

A memorable day, because this is probably the last day we will film on Tiengemeten. Because we are already quite advanced in editing both part three and the whole film, it is also clear what we need. The end of the film is still absent, so that’s what we’re going to make. The plans of course had been discussed while editing.
In May we had shot twice, with the intention of recording the new use of Tiengemeten: visitors of all kinds doing something useful, educational or enjoyable on the island. That 27 May was a rather grey day, but it was already very busy on the ferry. That day we filmed volunteers studying the plants, a journey by covered wagon, a scientist boring holes for groundwater studies and schoolchildren planting beans as part of a social work placement project. Whitsunday was a beautiful day. We wanted to film people enjoying themselves for a day in nature and that wasn’t difficult. A lot of people spent the day on Tiengemeten, strolling along the dike, cycling to the refuge mound, picnicking on the way.

Whitsunday, 31 May 2009

During the editing, it became clear what we had to do with our fixed camera positions. On our first day of shooting in October 1996, we already started. Some of these fixed positions had been filmed fairly often in the 13 years and in recent years especially the changes were of course enormous. Several positions don’t actually exist anymore. Our fixed position 1 was always at the end of Grevesweg. We stood there on the dike and looked in an easterly direction. There used to be a large poplar tree at the bottom of the dike, but it blew over in 2001. Grevesweg had become a creek, the remains of the tree are still there, but the dike has been removed. So our position is up in the air. That’s why it struck me as being a nice idea to take a shot from a crane. We had filmed before with a crane, but then there were still roads. You just towed it behind your car and lined it up on the level. It’s that simple. Things were different now. There is no road to the end of the creek anymore. So according to the people who understand these things, we needed a caterpillar vehicle. We would have to drive it across the rough terrain of the dike to the relevant position. When I called the company that rented out such cranes, I heard it was all very simple. Anyone can drive one. The man who was to deliver it would explain things to us and apart from that it was easy as pie.
Well. When we arrived, there was a crane by the ferry. Without anyone to explain anything. How do you start one of these things? Where could the key be? What are the buttons for? A man who was taking his dog for a walk knew where the key was usually hidden. And he managed to get it running. But it didn’t strike Huib the ferry man as such a good idea to drive the iron caterpillar tracks over the freshly painted deck of his ferry. So we needed rubber sheets. But then nobody could make the thing move again. It turns out that all these cranes have different instructions for use. In this case, within five seconds of pressing a pedal with your foot, you also had to use a button with your hand. Otherwise it would stop again. Once you know that, it’s simple.

Huib Bijl on the crane, 31 July 2009

Huib himself drove the machine onto the ferry and then Piet Holster was allowed to drive it to our fixed position. It was obvious that this caterpillar crane was not intended to drive such a distance. It was a hellish trip. Also Albert (editor and sound man) drove it for a bit.
Once it reached the spot, it worked very well. After an initial test, the cameraman Jaap put the camera on a tripod in the cabin on top and I was allowed to operate the buttons of the crane. Slowly we went up 22 metres. That was quite a lot higher than our original position. But the view was wonderful.
(And apologies for the noise we made.)

Fixed position 1 being filmed, 31 July 2009

Later in the afternoon, while Piet took the caterpillar crane back to the ferry, we went looking for what was once the T-junction of Grevesweg and the end of Dwarsdijk. Because Grevesweg is now a creek, that spot had to be more or less in the water, on a straight line between a remaining poplar tree and the Irenehoeve. With a rowing boat (thank you Eduard!) we set off towards our former T-junction. We found the spot to within a metre. Funnily enough, I recognised two ditches that were still visible and were also on a photograph from a film frame at the time when the road was still recognisable. We set up the boat as stably as possible in a shallow bit and Jaap positioned the tripod in the boat. It’s not easy to make a beautiful shot turning 360° when you also have to step up from the bottom of a small boat onto the seat and then back again on the way.
In the meantime it was nearly 6 pm. Most recreation seekers had gone home. Because the sun disappeared occasionally behind a cloud, we had to wait patiently for the right moment. There we were, in the middle of the wilderness, on a warm summer afternoon. It was beautiful.

(I would like to thank everybody who helped us with the caterpillar crane!)

Diary 17 January 2010

In the morning, it was drizzling in Amsterdam. The snow was slowly melting. But the expectation was for it to clear up in the afternoon. I had been wanting to go to Tiengemeten for a long time, just for a look. The last shooting had been in July 2009 and the rest of the year Albert Elings and I had been busy on and off editing two films about Tiengemeten: part 3 (New Tiengemeten) and the "overall film" that was eventually to be called Wistful Wilderness. I had used the Christmas holiday of 2008/2009 to view all the material we had shot in 13 years. Over the years, I had made a thorough shortlist of each shooting day. With a marker, I indicated which my favourite shots were. We started the editing by putting them all in chronological order one after the other. I really wanted to make a film with only shots of the landscape without any text and possibly with music. And then another film with the same shots, but then fragments of my thoughts in the soundtrack. Albert said that the second made him more curious. That’s what we had to start with. If we couldn’t manage that, we could always try something else. In January, I started writing texts, but it would take until October before we had the feeling that it was all as it should be.
In the meantime, we edited occasionally – when we both had time and that was hardly ever – material for the other film, New Tiengemeten. It had a very different approach and was intended for television. It worked very well to be involved with two films at once. It made them both clear and separate, I think. Discoveries we did for one film sometimes fitted better in the other. There are basically very few overlaps.
The films were now both almost finished. The shooting was completed. That felt like a kind of break in my life. Ever since January 1994, I had been involved with Tiengemeten, from October 1996 I had I filmed there and now it was all over. But of course I can’t just scrap Tiengemeten from my life.
On the Internet rain forecast, I followed the way the drizzle moved away on that Sunday. At one o’clock, I reached the ferry harbour. Huib was walking around there, but asked in surprise what I was doing: on Sunday the ferry doesn’t sail at one o’clock. I was very glad that some things can be different.

It was a beautiful day. Clear blue and fairly cold. The snow had disappeared, but the ice had not really melted. I have my folding bicycle with me and first cycled to the farthest point; the tree by what used to be the end of the road to the west.

17 January 2010: I’m sitting on the remains of the popular that was blown down in the autumn of 2000.

Sitting on the tree, I ate my sandwich. I walked around a little, a little way past the sign for the cul-de-sac and then cycled as best I could back to have a look at the cottage that used to belong to Mrs Witmond. The cottage is a ruin. I walked inside and looked at the tiled wall where the toilet used to be. The ice by the cottage was so sturdy I could walk over it. I walked in a straight line back to the creek near the Irenehoeve. I couldn’t cross that. Too much open water. I thought of Leen and Mariska and their children, Jaap and all the other former inhabitants. Ferryman Huib had seen everyone recently, on the umpteenth birthday/wedding anniversary of the Verlindens. It had been a wonderful party.

From the hiking dike, I walked back to the refuge mound. (Why does a nature reserve like this still seem to need so much barbed wire?!) I had a look round by the overflow. It was fairly low water. Across the mud, I could walk some way towards the flood opening. It was strange to find a path we had followed so often and that was still in the landscape, but usually inaccessible because of the water.
I walked across a stretch of sown grass to the bird hide by Griendweipolder. Because it was virtually impossible to see anything through the screen of the hide, a new and illegal vantage point had been created beside it. I thought that was quite funny, but Nature Conservancy probably didn’t. You can think of everything, but people still do what they want.
My final target may well have been to go and look at the spontaneous growth of saplings. I had after all started filming with the idea of carrying on until they were as tall as I am. In managing the guided nature of Tiengemeten, there were headed discussions about what to do with all those willow trees that sprung up spontaneously. In January 2009, there was a suggestion to get volunteers to come pull out the saplings in order to retain the desired open landscape. But over the course of that year, a kind of acceptance seemed to emerge that not everything could be controlled. The Scottish Highland cattle keep most saplings short and, where they can’t reach, the little trees grow a little bigger. It can’t be stopped. Against the dike of the old Polder, a kind of coppice has developed. Because there was still ice lying everywhere, I could walk there, and where I sank through the ice, water didn’t quite get into my boots.

The future wood of willow trees

The farmhouse at the Idahoeve had meanwhile been rebuilt. And also the old wooden barn where we had made countless shots of the remains of a previous life had been knocked down and built up against. The wren that used to live there has hopefully been able to find another spot.
Huib told us that next day everything was to be renovated at the large harbour. The woods would be chopped down and the facing was to be renewed. New Tiengemeten, yes... the title for the third part of the film wasn’t far off the mark. No, I shan’t draw any firm conclusions. So many mixed feelings. Walking in a straight line wearing boots through the mud (which I call silt), that’s what I like. That’s allowed on Tiengemeten and then it’s called “hiking nature”. An awful expression. Such things say more about me than about Tiengemeten. Most people prefer not to leave the path. And that’s what my films are also about, I hope. About leaving paths.