The Greenaway Alphabet by Saskia Boddeke

The fascinations of filmmaker Peter Greenaway, whose motto is "art is life and life is art,"are captured like butterflies and arranged in an alphabet, a form that suits him perfectly as an encyclopedist. In intimate conversations with his perceptive 16-year-old daughter Zoë, we discover the whos, whats and whys about Greenaway. They begin with A, which stands for Amsterdam, but could also stand for autism, Zoë suggests. Greenaway’s boundless creativity, unconstrained flow of words and passion for collecting certainly bring this to mind, and he admits to wearing the label with pride. The playful conversations don’t shy away from more painful topics; we hear that Greenaway hasn’t seen two other children of his for years. And later, heartbroken and in tears, Zoë asks him if for once he’ll stop talking like a commentator. Zoë’s spontaneous questions penetrate Greenaway to the core, enabling his wife, multimedia artist Saskia Boddeke, to make a deeply personal portrait not only of the artist, but also of Greenaway the father in his battle against time.

Saskia Boddeke 2017, documentary 68 min 21 November 2017 World Premiere at IDFA Amsterdam.

Awards

The documentary received two awards at the Tirana International Film Festival-Albania (TIFF 2018): Best documentary and Best documentary feature, Best Documentary Award at The Master of Art Film Festival 2018-Bulgaria and The Rose D’Or best Art documentary 2019.

The film has been shown around the world at about 48 art and film festivals

Saskia Boddeke The Greenaway Alphabet documentary.jpg

Credits The greenaway alphabet by Saskia boddeke

Beeld presents
In co –production with NTR
With the support of Mediafonds
A film by Saskia Boddeke
Editor Gys Zevenbergen

Director
Saskia Boddeke

Editor
Gys Zevenbergen

Music
Luca D’Alberto
Borut Krzisnik

Camera
Ruzbeh Babol
Sander Snoep
Saskia Boddeke

Highspeed Camera Operator
Jan Kees Dibbets

Sound
Mark Wessner
Gaby de Haan

Online edit
Elmer Leupen

Audio postproduction
Huibert Boon

Grading
Joel Sahuleka.

Line producer
Marita Ruyter

Production coordinator NTR
Astrid Prickaerts

Commissioning editor NTR
Oscar van der Kroon

Producer
Julia Emmering

Many thanks to:

Peter Greenaway
Pip Greenaway
Abe Bouma
The Luperpedia Foundation
Kees Kasander
Denis Wigman
Roland Wigman
Lies Janssen
Graham Matthews
Alan Thomas
Erwan van Buuren
Zen Bloot
Dirk Nijland
Menno Verduin
Sandro Ligtenberg
Marieke Wijnen
Annette Mosk
Reinier van Brummelen
Floris van der Lee
Evelien Vehof
Vincent Nelis
Chris van Luxemburg
Robin Hoven–Lieuw Choy
Mario Molino Espeleta

Stedelijk Museum, Jordan Wolfson
Rijksmuseum
Drowning by Numbers & The Pillow Book courtesy of Film4
The Falls & Draughtmans Contract courtesy BFI National Archive
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LCC
Eisenstein in Guanajuato courtesy Submarine-Fu Works-Paloma Negra Films-Edith Film-Potemkino

Lullaby, Father Father & The Brothel by Susanne Sundfør

We tried to contact the rightful claimants to ask for permission to use the audiovisual material. People who think they are rightful claimants please contact Beeld.

This film is a production of Beeld in co-production with NTR and was made with the support of Mediafonds and Fonds 21