Born in Amsterdam in 1949.
Netherlands Film Academy (1968-1972).
Founded, together with a group of fellow students, the dutch film magazine Skrien in 1968; regularly published articles about film in periodicals and newspapers in the following decade.
Right after graduation from the film academy in 1972, she was employed as the script girl in the production of the most popular dutch movie of all time, Turkish Delight. Next, she acted as assistant director for several fiction films.
In 1974 she was a co-founder of the Amsterdams Stadsjournaal [Amsterdam City Newsreel], a film collective in which she participated until 1980.
Her feature debut Golven [the Waves] was the first adaptation to the screen of a novel by Virginia Woolf. It was an art house box office success in 1982.
So far, she directed over 40 fiction films and documentaries. She has also directed several theatre plays.
Feature films:
1998 – ONE MAN AND HIS DOG
(Silver Dolphin, International Filmfestival of Troia for best actor)
1996 – IT’S STINGINESS, GENTLEMEN
1993 – FORT NAARDEN
1990 – CROCODILES IN AMSTERDAM
(2d prize Festival International de Films des Femmes, Montreal;
Axel Award, Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Copenhagen)
1988 – VOYAGE WITHOUT END based on a text by Peter Rosei
1985 – ORNITHOPTER
1983 – GIOVANNI
(special jury prize Nederlandse Filmdagen)
1982 - THE WAVES based on the novel by Virginia Woolf
(best script Nederlandse Filmdagen)
Documentaries:
2019 – LEONIE, ACTRESS AND SPY
2016 – ONE LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH
2012 – DREAM & DEED
2009 – DE STELLING VAN AMSTERDAM – WATERLINIE – STILLE STADSGRENS
2008 – EXPLODED VIEW
2006 – UTRECHT CS
2004 – SEEN THROUGH OTHER EYES
2002 – ERASMUS’ TRACES
2000 – UNKNOWN CHILDREN
1995 – CARLO GINZBURG TRAVELLING TO THE WORLD OF THE DEAD
1994 – WAKERS AND DREAMERS
1994 – A WINTER IN ZUIDERWOUDE
1992 – AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SNACKBARS
1988 – DISTANCES