(Film Still) Buurthuis 2
Buurthuis 2 by Josefin Arnell
Short Film, 16 min, Color, 4k, 2023
Executive Producer, Technical Supervision, Post-Production, Additional Camera Work
Buurthuis 2 is a fantasy film realized with the community center De Witte Boei in Amsterdam’s Wittenburg neighbourhood. Visitors and staff take on the roles of vampires, wizards, and zombies who are entangled in a real-estate development scheme to turn the residential neighborhood into a luxury spa resort. Anchored by a Dutch fairytale about the pitfalls of preposterous wealth, the plot and characters were developed in scriptwriting workshops together with the artist. In the process, Josefin Arnell explores the social fabric of a place that is highly specific and at the same time faces the same problems as many other communities.
The film draws from and reflects on the historic social ideals of community centers in the Netherlands, that used to serve as a tool to educate the lower classes. What does it mean to be a “good” citizen in the context of increasing wealth disparity, housing shortages, and welfare cuts? Arnell sees storytelling as a form of resistance that can involve different groups of people. Buurthuis 2 brings the community center into the cinema and cinema into the museum by playfully appropriating tropes of horror and fantasy