Louis van Gasteren facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Louis van Gasteren
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Louis van Gasteren (1987)
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| Born | 20 November 1922 Amsterdam, Netherlands
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| Died | 10 May 2016 (aged 93) |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1951–2016 |
| Spouse(s) | Joke Meerman |
| Awards | Golden Calf for Hans: Het Leven Voor De Dood (1983) Golden Calf for De prijs van overleven (2003) |
Louis Alphonse van Gasteren (born November 20, 1922 – died May 10, 2016) was a famous Dutch filmmaker and artist. He was born in Amsterdam, a big city in the Netherlands. His father, Louis van Gasteren Sr., was an actor, and his mother, Elise Menagé Challa, was a singer. His sister, Josephine van Gasteren, also became an actress.
About Louis van Gasteren
Louis van Gasteren first trained to be an electrician. In 1949, he worked for a company called Dutch Polygoon. This company made newsreels, which were short films shown in cinemas before the main movie.
In 1951, Louis started his own film company called Spectrum Film. His first film was Brown Gold in 1952. It was a documentary about cocoa and chocolate.
Louis van Gasteren won important awards for his films. In 1983, he received the Dutch Film Critics Award. He also won the Golden Calf for best picture for his film Hans: Het Leven Voor De Dood (which means Hans, Life Before Death). The Golden Calf is one of the highest film awards in the Netherlands. He won a second Golden Calf in 2003 for his documentary The Price of Survival.
Besides making films, Louis van Gasteren also taught at universities in the United States. He was a visiting professor at UCLA and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. He lived in Amsterdam and was married to Joke Meerman.
Louis van Gasteren's Films
Louis van Gasteren made many different kinds of films, including documentaries and thrillers. Here are some of his notable works:
- 1952 – Bruin goud (Brown Gold): A documentary about cocoa and chocolate.
- 1954 – Railplan 68 (Rail Plan 68): This film showed how tram rails were replaced at night in Amsterdam.
- 1955 – Vliegende schotels geland (Flying saucers landed): A fun commercial for coffee.
- 1960 – Stranding (Stranded): A thriller about bank robbers who get shipwrecked.
- 1960 – Een nieuw dorp op nieuw land (A new village on new land): A documentary about building a new village called Nagele.
- 1962 – Het huis (The House): A short film about a house being built and torn down at the same time.
- 1965 – Out of My Skull: An early experimental film made while he was teaching at Harvard University.
- 1968 – Report from Biafra: A documentary about the Biafran War.
- 1975 – Corbeddu: The first of three films about Sardinia, exploring if a bandit was like Robin Hood.
- 1983 – Hans: Het Leven Voor De Dood (Hans, Life Before Death): A documentary about the life of a young composer, Hans van Sweeden. This film won him a Golden Calf award.
- 1989 – Een zaak van niveau (A Matter of Level): This film was about 1000 years of Dutch water management. It won several awards.
- 1997 – Beyond Words: An interview with the Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, filmed in 1967.
- 2003 – The Price of Survival (De prijs van overleven): This documentary followed up on a 1969 film about children of World War II survivors. It also won a Golden Calf.
- 2012 – Nema Aviona za Zagreb (There is no plane for Zagreb): An autobiographical film with interviews from famous people like Meher Baba and Timothy Leary.
Louis van Gasteren's Artworks
Besides films, Louis van Gasteren also created visual art. Here are some of his art projects:
- Car Sculpture in Tele Creation (1964)
- Matter Paintings, shown at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1966)
- Multi Pels, displayed at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (1967)
- Matter paintings and multiples, shown at the Fodor Museum Amsterdam (1968)
- Sunny Implo (with Fred Wessels), at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1970)
- Roots of the City, an artwork for the Nieuwmarkt metro station (1980)
- Furnishing Neeltje Jans (with Wilhelm Holzbauer, Frei Otto, Martin Manning) (1987)
- Normal Amsterdam Level (with Kees van der Veer), at the City Hall / Music Theatre (1988)
