Gerrit van Dijk (born 1938) is a Dutch animator, film maker, and painter.
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Gerrit van Dijk was born in a pious Catholic family in the village of Uden.[1][2] He studied as a fifteen-year-old boy at the academy in Tilburg.[3] He was not very satisfied about the school. "You only learn technique. The creativity you learn is no creativity at all. You know exactly what colour socks you should wear and what your hair should look like, but not how to put something on paper". After having finished his study, he limited himself to teaching only. When he took up the brush after many years to start for himself, his work met enthusiasm at home and abroad. He worked intensively with other artists from other disciplines on projects that often raised controversy.
His painting career ended abruptly when he saw Norman McLaren's films and bought a double-eight camera. He made his first film It 's good in Heaven and hasn't stopped since. He sees his shift to film as a logical continuation of his work as a painter, and considers his films moving paintings.
In the spirit of time, he turned his back deliberately to classic filmmaking. His films are collages that combine photographic images and image-by-image technique. His critical films of the eighties dealing with social injustice become more personal with an introspective view of the world.
Van Dijk continually searches for new forms and techniques. There are few two-dimensional techniques that he had not used: cell, cut-out, rotoscopy, pixilation or live action combined with animation. In A Good Turn Daily Van Dijk choses a form of technique for each scene individually, with an eye to expressing the content of thet scene.
Gerrit van Dijk has an extensive filmography. His films have been shown at many international festivals and won many prizes. For his films ´Pas a Deux´, which he made with Monique Renault, and ´I move, so I am` he received a Golden Bear at the Film Festspiele, Berlin 1989 and 1998. The refined technique of rotoscope is used again by Gerrit van Dijk to make the animated documentary The last words of Dutch Schultz. In 2006 he made the film Sold out in cooperation with Marie-José van der Linden.
In 1998, he received the Order of the Dutch Lion from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.[3]
| Title | Length | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Far away from home | 5.19 min | 2009 |
| Sold out | 7.30 min | 2006 |
| Trailer for Filmmuseum | 1.5 min | 2005 |
| The Letter | 50 sec. | 2004 |
| Jute 14: Deed gij ook niet, wat U geschiedt? | 3 min | 2004 |
| The last words of Dutch Schultz | 23 min. | 2003 |
| I move, so I am | 8.5 min. | 1997 |
| Frieze Frame | 4.5 min. | 1991 |
| Janneke | 8.5 min. | 1990 |
| Pas A Deux | 5.5 min. | 1988 |
| A Good Turn Daily | 13 min. | 1983 |
| Jute 9 Tanzen nach den Pfeifen von F.J.Strauss | 3 min. | 1979 |
| Jute 2 Alle Menschen werden Brüder | 3 min. | 1979 |
| Quod Libet | 7.5 min. | 1977 |
| Sportflesh | 3 min. | 1976 |
| Butterfly | 3.5 min. | 1973 |