(auto-translated from Dutch Dutch)
Special screening and conversation with filmmaker Marieke Rodenburg and writer Esther Shaya about archival research and the representation of the progressive educator, champion of women's suffrage, and resistance hero Henriëtte Henriquez Pimentel.
As director of the nursery opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg, she saved countless Jewish children from deportation during the Second World War. Who was this woman? How were the filmmakers able to paint a personal picture of her life before the war with barely available audiovisual archival material of herself?
In 2022, Marieke Rodenburg made the documentary *Directrice - Henriëtte Henriquez Pimentel*. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Pimentel becoming director of the crèche on Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam. In the years leading up to the war, she put her innovative educational ideas into practice there. Shortly before Pimentel reached retirement age, the Second World War broke out. Henriëtte Pimentel was murdered in Auschwitz on September 17, 1943. The documentary tells Pimentel's life story, from the period before the war to wartime, during which she became a key extra in saving Jewish children.
After the screening, Marieke Rodenburg and Esther Shaya will engage in a conversation with researcher Anne Margot van der Baan. They will discuss the (audiovisual) archival research, the representation of historical women such as Pimentel, and the impact of gender bias on historiography. Why, for example, did Pimentel's resistance work become less well known than that of Walter Süskind?
There is only one moving image of Pimentel in the nursery. How were the filmmakers able to give a voice to Pimentel through available archives from Beeld & Geluid, among others? And to her innovative ideas regarding education and care for children, inspired by, among others, pedagogue Fröbel and progressive women around her.
Admission is free, please register via the website.
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