academic curriculum vitae / research – appraisal - publications
Nico de Klerk
personal information
date & place of birth: December 21, 1956; Leiden, the Netherlands
domicile: Barcelonaplein 10, 1019 LZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
citizenship: The Netherlands
E: nhdeklerk@gmail.com
M: +31.6.1019 3168
academic degree: BA English (Leiden University); MA Discourse analysis (University of
Anmsterdam)
main fields of research
film history; early cinema; orphan films; program formats; colonial history; archival science;
amateur film
academic/archival career
• 2012–present: external PhD candidate at the Utrecht University; supervisor: professor William
Uricchio, Utrecht University /MIT, Boston.
• 1992-2012: collection researcher Nederlands Filmmuseum (now Eye).
• 2009–present: member of editorial board The Moving Image
• 2004-2011: member of Domitor’s Executive Committee
professional experience
research and its presentation
• May 2013: lecture ‘An institute learns about cinema: the Colonial Institute and its sponsored
films’, at conference The institutionalization of educational cinema; Dpt. of Media Studies,
Stockholm University
• May 2012: lecture ‘The release of Pan Am’s New Horizons film series in the Netherlands’ and
screening at conference Exploring advertising; Dpt. of Media Studies, Stockholm University
• 1992-2012: collection researcher Nederlands Filmmuseum (now Eye).
International Amsterdam Workshops (screenings and discussions aimed at international peer
group of films scholars, film archivists, and relevant experts):
2009 - ‘Advertising films: the images that changed your life’
2004 - ‘Re-assembling the program: the program as an exhibition format’
1998 - ‘The eye of the beholder: exotic and colonial imaging’
1995 - ‘”Disorderly order”: colors in silent film’
1994 - ‘Nonfiction from the teens’
collection seminars (screenings and discussions aimed at the national peer group of film
professionals (scholars, archivists, researchers, etc.):
2011 - ‘Home away from home: home movies by expats’
2009 - ‘Titles and text in silent film’
2007 - ‘Experimental and expanded cinema’
2006 - ‘Programming archival materials’
• September–October 2011: screenings and panel presentations at ‘Film.City.Vienna’; Ludwig
Boltzmann Institut/Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna
• September 2010: panel presentation at conference ‘Film and the Empire’; University of
Pittsburgh
• October 2010: presentation and discussion of book + DVD publication on colonial filmmaking
pioneer J.C. Lamster at conference ‘World history and digital scholarship’; Centre for South
Asian Studies, Cambridge University
• September 2010: ‘Energien’; curator of 6 conceptual programs for ‘Promethean Culture’;
Essen-Ruhr Area European Cultural Capital, Essen
• June 2010: curator film programs on popular science; Domitor conference, Ryerson
University/University of Toronto
• July-September 2008: curator retrospective ‘Becoming Cary Grant’; Nederlands Filmmuseum
• April 2008: lectures ‘Programming the Mutoscope & Biograph Co.’ and ‘Dialogue: the double
speak of cinema’; CUNY-College of Staten Island
• November-December 2007: curator retrospective ‘Péter Forgács: Erasmus Prize laureate
2008’; Nederlands Filmmuseum
• November 2007: curator program ‘Film as a real thing: Ernie Gehr’; Nederlands Filmmuseum
• April 2007: ‘Private films in the colony’, presentation and discussion; Japanese Historical
Association, Nagoya
• June 2006: paper ‘Transporting the audience’; Domitor conference, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
• June 2006: curator ‘Cinema and ‘the national’; Domitor conference, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
• November 2005-February 2006: curator retrospective ‘Raymond Depardon: photographer/
filmmaker’ (in cooperation with Nederlands Fotomuseum); Nederlands Filmmuseum
• April-June 2005: curator retrospective ‘Fritz Lang: machines and machinations’; Nederlands
Filmmuseum
• April 2005: ‘Le cinéma colonial: Les Indes’, screenings and discussion; Forum des Images, Paris
• July 2004: ‘Dark treasures: rediscovering colonial films’, coordinator series of programs
compiled by archivists from various European countries; Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
• May 2003: coordinator of film project ‘Breaking news’, bringing together new found footage
works from the collections of the Nederlands Filmmuseum by Marjoleine Boonstra, Péter
Forgács, Manfred Neuwirth, Fiona Tan, and others, and curating film program ‘We’ll meet
again’; Light <> Image: the Aegina Academy, Aegina (Greece)
• October-December 2002: curator film program ‘All is well in the colony: the Netherlands EastIndies 1912-1942’, including realization of compilation film TABEE; Nederlands Filmmuseum
• March 2002: ‘Editing film history’, selection of programs reflecting the Nederlands
Filmmuseum’s activities and philosophy; Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna
• October 2000: curator of ‘The Mutoscope & Biograph Company, 1896-1903’, 11 programs
compiled from the remaining and restored 300 reels of 68mm M&B prints from the collections
of the Nederlands Filmmuseum and NFTVA; premiered at Giornate del Cinema Muto, Sacile
• September 1999: ’The film program: the orphanest of ‘em all’; Orphans Film Symposium,
Columbia, SC (first of my presentations at all USC and NYU Orphan symposiums)
• October 1998: presentation of dance films from the Netherlands East-Indies, Sardinia
International Ethnographic Film Festival titled ‘Musica e riti’; Nuoro
• 1995-2001: monthly programs of nonfiction films, predominantly from the Filmmuseum’s
collections
• September 1996-January 1997: research for thematic TV program THE TIME MACHINE
• April 1996: ‘J.C. Lamster: an amateur filmmaker in the Netherlands East-Indies’; FIAF congress,
Cartagena (Colombia)
• September 1995-April 1996: ‘100 years of film shows,’ series of 4 programs on the occasion of
the centenary of cinema evoking cinema shows from, respectively, 1910s, 1930s, 1950s, and—a
future fantasy—2010s; Nederlands Filmmuseum
• November 1995: ‘Colonial and exotic imaging’, screenings and discussions; University of
Chicago
• September 1995: ‘Programming early nonfiction film’; Haus des Dokumentarfilms, Stuttgart
appraisal activities
• 2009-2012: appraisal and recommendation for (de-)accessioning of ‘American nonfiction films
1940-1980’
• 2006-2008: appraisal and recommendation for (de-)accessioning of ‘American feature fiction
films 1950-1980’
• 2005/2011: inventorying, appraisal, and recommendation for accessioning of the private films
of the Chinese Kwee family in the Netherlands East-Indies (late 1920s-1930s) and in Europe
(1950s-1960s)
• 2004/2012: appraisal and recommendation for accessioning of the collection of Royal Tropical
Institute’s 16mm collection of films on former Dutch colonies (1920s-1930s) and the so-called
Third World (1960s-1970s)
• 2003: inventorying, appraisal, and recommendation for accessioning of 16mm private film
collection of Dutch amateur anthropologist Paul Julien (1930s-1970s)
• 1997-1998: appraisal and recommendation for preservation of ethnographic film materials
and exotica
• 1993-1995: appraisal and recommendation for preservation of silent and early sound nitrate
prints
publications
N.B. I have restricted this list largely to a selection of academic and film archival publications and left out my film
critical work (reviews, interviews, etc.). For non-English publications I have provided translations in red print)
forthcoming [2016]
• ‘Dream-work: Pan Am’s New Horizons in Holland’
in: Bo Florin, Nico de Klerk, Patrick Vonderau (eds.), [working title]Films that sell: moving images in advertising
(London: BFI-Palgrave)
forthcoming [2014]
• ‘On having your picture taken: home movies as records of social demeanor’
in: Karin Fest, Carina Lesky, Siegfried Mattl, et al. (eds.), Amateur film archaeology (Vienna: Synema)
2014
• ‘Langsam in den Bann gezogen: Manfred Neuwirths experimentelle Reisefilme’
in: Brigitte Mayr, Michael Omasta (eds.), Manfred Neuwirth* (Vienna: Synema-Österreichisches Filmmuseum)
2013
• ‘100 Years of image control: the case of J.C. Lamster’s films for the Dutch Colonial Instititute’
Journal of Early Visual Popular Culture, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 312-321
2012
• ‘Cinema’s alchemist: the films of Péter Forgács’ [book review]
Leonardo Reviews Quarterly, 2.02, pp. 51-55
2010
• ‘Een onmogelijke opdracht: J.C. Lamsters filmopnamen voor het Koloniaal Instituut’
in: Janneke van Dijk, Jaap de Jonge, Nico de Klerk: J.C. Lamster, een vroege filmer in Nederlands-Indië* (Amsterdam:
KIT Publishers), pp. 79-114
*‘Commission impossible: J.C. Lamster’s films for the Colonial Institute’, in: J.C. Lamster: early filmmaker in the
Netherlands East-Indies
• ‘”Sans profit pour eux”: dierenopnamen in vroege commerciële film, 1891-1911’*
Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 83-105
*‘”Sans profit pour eux”: films of animals in early commercial cinema, 1891-1911’, in: Journal for Media History
2009
• ‘Designing a home: orphan films in the work of Gustav Deutsch’
in: Wilbirg Brainin-Donnenberg, Michael Loebenstein (eds.), Gustav Deutsch (Vienna: Österreichisches
Filmmuseum-Synema), pp. 113-123
2008
• ‘The transport of audiences: making cinema “national”’
in: Richard Abel, Giorgio Bertellini, Rob King (eds.), Early cinema and the “national” (New Barnet: John Libbey),
pp.101-109
• ‘Péter Forgács: no more holy innocents’
in: Cultural memory (Amsterdam: Praemium Erasmianum Foundation), pp. 8-15
• ‘Home away from home: private films from the Dutch-East Indies’
in: Karen L. Ishizuka, Patricia R. Zimmermann (eds.), Mining the home movie: excavations in histories and memories
(Berkeley – Los Angeles – London: University of California Press), pp. 148-163
2006
• ‘What the papers say: the case of the film-related papers of Jean Desmet’
KINtop, vol. 14-15, pp. 113-123
2005
• ‘Towards an indirect cinema: the documentaries of Raymond Depardon’
in: Frits Gierstberg (ed.), Raymond Depardon: photographer and filmmaker (Rotterdam/Amsterdam: Episode,
Nederlands Fotomuseum/Nederlands Filmmuseum), pp. 35-50
• ‘Program formats’
in: Richard Abel (ed.) Encyclopedia of early cinema (London-New York: Routledge), pp. 533-535
• ‘Enter the dragon: Gustav Deutsch’s WELT SPIEGEL KINO #2’
in: WELT SPIEGEL KINO: Episodenfilm von Gustav Deutsch/Film in episodes by Gustav Deutsch (Vienna/Amsterdam: loop
media/Nederlands Filmmuseum), pp. 22-26
2004
• (with Ruud Visschedijk) ‘Musea en archieven: een rommelige ordening’*
in: Hans van Driel (ed.), Beeldcultuur (Amsterdam: Boom), pp. 111-136
*‘Museums and archives: a cluttered order’, in: Image culture
• ‘Dark treasures: rediscovering colonial films’
Cinegrafie, no. 17, pp. 214-225 / 431-441
• ‘”Volgt het voorbeeld van John Wayne”: over onze grenzeloze nationale cinema’*
in: Rommy Albers, Jan Baeke, Rob Zeeman (eds.), Film in Nederland (Amsterdam-Gent/Amsterdam:
Ludion/Filmmuseum), pp. 414-421
* ‘”Follow the example of John Wayne”: on our borderless national cinema’
2003
• ‘The moment of screening: what nonfiction films can do’
in: Peter Zimmermann, Kay Hoffmann (eds.), Triumph der Bilder: Kultur- und Dokumentarfilme vor 1945 im
internationalen Vergleich ( Konstanz: UKV), pp. 291-305
2002
• ‘Das Programmformat – Bruchstücke einer Geschichte’*
KINtop. no. 11, pp. 15-19
*‘The program format: fragments of a history’
• ‘Montage erwünscht’*
in: Gustav Deutsch, Hanna Schimek (Hg.), Film ist. Recherche (Wien: Sonderzahl), pp. 21-27
*‘Montage wanted’
2000
• ‘”Pictures to be shewn”: programming the American Biograph’
in: Vanessa Toulmin, Simon Popple (eds.), Visual delights: essays on the popular and projected image in the 19th
century (Trowbridge: Flicks Books), pp. 204-224
• ‘Programme of programmes: the Palace Theatre of Varieties’
Griffithiana, no. 66/70, pp. 241-248
1999
• ‘A few remaining hours: news films and the interest in technology in Amsterdam film shows,
1896-1910’
Film History, vol. 11 no. 1, pp. 5-17
1997
• ‘De bioscoopvoorstelling: een andere geschiedenis, II’*
Skrien, no. 211, pp. 66-69
• ‘De bioscoopvoorstelling: een andere geschiedenis, I’
Skrien, no. 210, pp. 62-65
*‘The film show: a different history’
1994
• ‘Print matters’
in: Nonfiction from the teens. The 1994 Amsterdam Workshop (Amsterdam: Nederlands Filmmuseum), pp. 67-73
1992
• [translation] André Bazin, ‘Montage verboden: CRIN BLANC, BALLON ROUGE en UNE FÉE PAS COMME LES
AUTRES’
Versus: Tijdschrift voor Film en Opvoeringskunsten, no. I, pp. 52-63
[original title ‘ Montage interdit’, in: Versus: Journal for Film and the Performing Arts]
1991
• [translations in] André Bazin en de documentaire (Amsterdam: Nederlands Filmmmuseum)
[André Bazin and documentary film]
- ‘Op zoek naar de verloren tijd: PARIS 1900’, pp. 6-7
original title ‘A la recherche du temps perdu: PARIS 1900’
- ‘Elke middag sterven: LA COURSE DES TAUREAUX’, pp. 8-12
o.t. ‘Mort tous les après-midi’
- ‘Over Why we Fight’, pp. 13-17
o.t. ‘A propos de POURQUOI NOUS COMBATTONS’
- ‘Le monde du silence’, pp. 18-21
o.t. ‘Le monde du silence’
- ‘Over Jean Painlevé’, pp. 22-24
o.t. ‘A propos de Jean Painlevé’
- ‘Een Bergsoniaanse film: LE MYSTÈRE PICASSO’, pp. 25-30
o.t. ‘Un film bergsonien: LE MYSTÈRE PICASSO’