Welcome to Holland Focus in its new, very different form. You might be familiar with the print magazine which, for many years, was produced by iet and Freek Fuijkschot, and if that’s the case, you are most probably also aware that earlier this year iet and Freek decided to call time on that operation. This was a real pity, as the magazine was an excellent publication, but iet and Freek had worked hard on it for many years and I think they fully deserve to free up some time in their lives for other things.
For a full decade, I’d contributed the film review page to the magazine, and my association with iet and Freek actually goes back even further, to when I wrote for a newspaper they edited. Having thoroughly enjoyed working with them for many years, I felt that it would be good to keep Holland Focus going in some way, and so, after a bit of thought, I ran my ideas past Freek and iet. Happily, they agreed, and I’m really grateful to them for doing so and for being so encouraging. Oh, and iet designed the very nice logo you see at the top of the page, which I think I’m right in saying was used for the entire life of the print version of the magazine. I’m pleased to be able to bring that here, as to me it forges a nice link between Holland Focus then and now.
Now entirely web-based, this new site will be dedicated to articles on cinema; film journalism is my background, after all, so I thought it would make sense to focus on movies in general and reviews in particular. While film reviews will be the norm, other articles on cinema should pop up from time to time - be they profiles of directors, festival coverage, etc. Although the description along the top of the page gives the geographical area we’re mainly concerned with, there are many other possibilities for posts here, i.e. a review of a Hollywood film by a Dutch director, or a report on a Belgian co-production set and filmed in none of the three places listed in the site’s description, to give but two examples. I’ll be trying to rope in one or two other writers along the way, and if you’d like to contribute something to the site (in either English or Dutch), please get in touch using the form on the right.
Anyway, the first review is currently being prepared and should appear on the site very shortly. Although our professional association has now ended, I will still enjoy keeping in touch with iet and Freek, but in any case I’d like to take this chance to thank them publicly for all the great years we had at Holland Focus - and for allowing me to take the name forward. I hope they will be pleased with this new venture.
Enjoy the site.
Darren Arnold
