LAST WORDS
My Sister Yoka (1935 - 1997)

A film by Johan van der Keuken

With Noshka van der Lely

Camera/sound: Johan van der Keuken
Editing: Menno Boerema
Producer: Sylvia Baan Babeth Van loo
Production: Pieter van Huystee Film & TV
With:
Else & Barbara Broekman
Laura Hermanides
Frieda Wassenbergh
Premiere: 1998
Format: Beta SP, colour
Lenght : 51 minutes


Last Words, My Sister Yoka (1935 - 1997)

My sister Yoka, 2 ½ years my senior, died of cancer on 8 August 1997. Eight days before her death, my wife Noshka and I had a long conversation with her that I filmed with a digital video camera. Two days before she died, I recorded another, shorter talk with her. I had asked Yoka with some trepidation if I could possibly film her, but the film turned out to be her last 'project'; one that was very important to her. Just before she died, in the presence of all of us, she asked me if I had been able to make all the recordings I needed.

The conversations are about: the meaning of life, the pros and cons of metaphysics, vitality, passing on experiences and insight - that may have most important of all to her. And also about our relationship within the family, quarrels that were later resolved as we came together. I also filmed her house, her collection of possessions, the wind in her garden. And her daughters (my nieces) and my eldest sister, photos from all periods, paintings that Yoka made.

This film, that lasts about 50 minutes, has been released as part of the multimedia exhibition Lichaam en Stad (Body and City) and is screened in a quiet space. In this way I hope to add an extra dimension to the encounter between moving pictures (and sound) and the still image: life and death, death and life, in continuous juxtaposition.

Johan van der Keuken