Filmmaker present: Ida Does, director of Trefossa
Ida Does, director of the documentary TrefossaIda Does is the director of the documentary Trefossa, about the Surinamese writer Henri de Ziel (Trefossa). Ms. Does will be present at the screening of the film at MovieTowne on the opening day of the Festival, Wednesday 16 September, at 3:00pm. Below is a short synopsis of the film.
Trefossa (Henri de Ziel, 1916 – 1975) was a Surinamese neo-romantic poet. He wrote primarily about the beauty of his native country, and did so, famously, in Sranan, Suriname’s colloquial language that was considered “Negro-speak” and banned from schools’ curricula in favour of Dutch. Among other accomplishments, Trefossa is known for his work Trotji, a collection of 19 poems that proved influential to generations of Surinamese writers and for writing Sranan stanzas of Suriname’s national anthem in the mid-1940s.
This intimate documentary, through interviews with Trefossa’s colleagues, family, and former students, creates a compelling picture of a somewhat enigmatic man, one of the most important figures in the history of modern Suriname.
posted by Jonathan at
7:39 AM
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You can see a few minutes of the film here; also a link to Trefossa's poems online:
http://paramaribospan.blogspot.com/2009/09/seen-trefossa.html
A review of Trefossa by Geoffey Philp:
It's hard for me to imagine a language or dialect without a word for "freedom," yet this was the situation that Henri Frans de Ziel, alias Trefossa (1916-1975), faced when he began his writing career in Suriname.
In the moving and well-researched documentary, I am Not I, filmmaker Ida Does recounts the life of Trefossa, who for most of his life seemed to be constrained by race, culture, and the influence of his mother, yet ironically he is best known composing Suriname's National Anthem, coining the word, Srefidensi [translated freedom or autonomy], and for publishing a book of poems, Trotji, in Sranan Tongo, the colloquial language of Suriname.
Beginning with his humble origins, the film traces Trefossa's circuitous journey from his birth in Paramaribo, Suriname and subsequent travels to the Netherlands, his return to Suriname and his death in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The documentary also uses extensive interviews with his sister, Hilda de Ziel; Mavis Noordwijk, a family friend; Richenel Ritfeld, a former student, and his widow, Hulda Walser to capture their obvious pride at the gift that Trefossa had given his compatriots: verse composed in the "Surinamean tongue"-an achievement similar in intent to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Although this revolutionary act of daring to speak in the mother tongue had an immediate impact on many of Trefossa's contemporaries, he remained a man in conflict with his culture and times-at once impatient and forgiving. Yet sometimes, like in the poem, "Gronmama [Earthmother]," he demonstrates an ecological/symbiotic awareness of the land that has yet to permeate the consciousness of Caribbean peoples:
Gronmama
I am not myself
until my blood
is infused with you
in all of my veins
I am not myself
until my roots
sink down, shoot
into you, my earthmother,
I am not myself
until I manage
to keep, to carry
your image in my soul
I am not myself
until you cry out
with pleasure, or pain
in my voice
I am not I is a gorgeous film and its sensual cinematography captures the beauty of Suriname that Trefossa described in his poems. As Back Lot Film Festival states, "The film is one big poem, so beautiful that it leaves you speechless."
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