Digna Sinke
2021
De stille Oceaan
Digna Sinke
Josse De Pauw, Johan Leysen
Unrelenting pessimism dominates this slow-paced, dark film, the debut feature from director Digna Sinke dedicated to an archetypal born loser named Marian (Josee Ruiter). Marian is a journalist who has been working in Latin America and who arrives home just after her father dies to find out that the man she had married for purely political reasons might be deported because the authorities found out he was not living with her. Meanwhile, Marian is upset that her mother and sister are keeping her mentally handicapped brother in an institution, and she goes there to get him released into her custody -- a mistake it turns out. He is actually worse off with her, and vice-versa. On top of everything, Marian cannot break away from the depression she feels over a tragic incident that happened while she was in Latin America -- and anything she does is colored by that moment from the past. These burdens become almost too much to bear, both for Marian and the viewers.
De stille Oceaan
Gedichten uit zee
Jan Wouter van Reijen, Kees Hin
During the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2002, Leo Hannewijk (festival director Film by the Sea) approached filmmaker and producer Digna Sinke with the idea of asking several film makers to make short films based on poems about the province of Zeeland. It would offer an opportunity to investigate the limits of the medium film and, just like poetry, not to focus on the story but to tackle universal and grander themes through mood and form. In the end, eight short films were realized, by eight different filmmakers. The films are connected by intermezzi, aerial shots of the Zeeland coasts. Poems of the Sea is a stirring and surprising portrayal of Zeeland. Filled with desires and passion.
Poems from the Sea
Atlantis
Digna Sinke
Pitou Nicolaes
Shy, thirteen year old Xenia doesn't feel comfortable in the overly-regulated society she lives in. In search of a place for herself she discovers an island on which time doesn't seem to exist. This is where she finds the key to her future.
Atlantis
Tiengemeten - Deel 1
Digna Sinke
On the island Tiengemeten, thirteen miles south of Rotterdam as the crow flies, all roads come to a dead end. Behind the dykes is water and wilderness. Here, among these dykes on 1700 acres of fertile land, director Digna Sinke filmed from 1996 how Tiengemeten is intended to become a stretch of wild nature, as part of a conservation plan. This is easier said than done. Alternative land with living accommodations has to be provided for six farming families. This comes through for five, but not for Leen Vos. Sinke also filmed how project groups regularly come and take a look and call meetings. Tiengemeten will be divided into three sections: Wistfulness, Wilderness and Wealth. However, nobody knows how the plan will work out. The negotiators allow farmer Leen Vos to stay until 2007. Until that time, the project cannot be carried out. Sinke just keeps filming, in her restrained, observant style, devoted to the magnificent scenery.
Tiengemeten - Part 1
Nieuw Tiengemeten
Digna Sinke
New Tiengemeten is the account of the transformation of the little island of Tiengemeten, the last "real" island of South-West Holland. Fertile agricultural land is set aside to allow nature to run its course, according to a carefully drawn up plan. The film follows the development of the island after the departure of the last farmer. The asphalt roads are dug up to creeks, the dike is cut, the farms are given a new destination. Will man succeed in making nature? Nature that is also fit for recreation?
New Tiengemeten
Tiengemeten 2001 - 2006
Digna Sinke
In the nineties, it was decided to convert Tiengemeten, an island in the Haringvliet estuary, from an agricultural area to a nature reserve with three zones, which were labelled 'wealth', 'melancholy' and 'wilderness'. After part one, focussing on the period 1996 to 2001, in part two of her documentary Sinke talks to the Vos brothers, the last two farmers on the island with whom the authorities are still negotiating about the conditions of their departure, and to representatives of the Society for the Preservation of Nature, the Department of Waterways and Public Works, the local authorities and Brussels, who mainly discuss the finances. Between times, she films the island.
Tiengemeten 2001 - 2006
BEWAREN - of hoe te leven
Digna Sinke
Show me your attic and I’ll tell you who you are! In this very personal and universal cinematographic essay, Digna Sinke travels to Zeeland and Bali, through faded photos to minimalist digital nomads. What to do with all those spare buttons? If you don’t keep anything, who will know what grandma’s tablecloth felt like?
BEWAREN - of hoe te leven
