L. R. Helmnrich Retrospective  

Fished for over a thousand years, the Hollandse Nieuwe (Dutch New Herring) is a phenomenon that has become a national cultural icon. Every year millions of Dutch people in Holland and abroad are looking forward to the arrival of the first barrel of fish. In the Middle Ages the trade in herring meant up to one-third of the Gross National Product of The Netherlands, but more recently, the Dutch herring fleet has lost a great deal of its importance as only two vessels are now fishing for herring under the Dutch flag. “Raw Herring” is a touching story told from the point of view and daily routine of Dutch herring fishers, a life in which comradeship and herring are celebrated in equal measure with loved ones on shore.

Festivals

International Film Festival Rotterdam (2013)
Tribeca Film Festival, USA (2013)

Leonard Retel Helmrich

Leonard Retel Helmrich is a Dutch cinematographer and filmmaker of Indonesian descent. He was born in 1959 in Tilburg after his family repatriated to the Netherlands. He graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 1986. Inspired by the French film critic André Bazin, he developed his own cinematic style “Single Shot Cinema” the essence of which is catching real life moments while they are happening in one continuous shot with a camera that is moving around the subject.
His trilogy consisting of films “Eye of the Day” (2001), “Shape of the Moon” (2004), and “Position Among the Stars” (2010) provides us with an insight into not only family dramas—gambling addictions, parent-child conflicts, money problems—but also global issues such as economic inequality, religious conflict, and the rise of modernity in traditional societies.
He has taught masterclasses in various film schools around the world. A number of festivals have celebrated a retrospective of his films.

Selected Filmography

The Phoenix Mystery / Het Phoenix mysterie (1990)
Moving Objects (1991)
Eye of the Day / De stand van de zon (2001)
Shape of the Moon / Stand van de maan (2004)
Position among the Stars / Stand van de Sterren (2010)
Raw Herring / Hollandse Nieuwe (2013).