Nice2Meet: ‘Deep Look’ Filmmaker Veysi

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Hi Veysi, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a Dutch-Kurdish artist and filmmaker, living and working in Amsterdam. Since 2009, I work at DEEP LOOK. Before DEEP LOOK, I wrote and directed two short artistic movies and a low-budget feature length movie.

Living in opposite worlds (West, East; deaf, hearing; Islamic, Christian), I have developed a particular view on reality. Films are my medium to reach out to people and have them experience – through cinematographic means – inner rest and contemplation.

I was born deaf and grew up in De Schilderswijk. I saw this white working-class area changing into an immigrants area. Shaped by my deeper look into people I have found my place in the world. DEEP LOOK is the visual expression of this path: watching the film gives peace of mind.

And could you also tell a bit about your new movie Deep Look?

DEEP LOOK (runtime: 81 min.) is an experience film with penetrating portraits you can view as visual songs: from a 94-year old woman farmer to a Uruguayan architect of luxury villas. The film takes you on a journey of compassion and inner peace. It offers a wide range of experiences: it starts emotionally, but to the end it increasingly has a calming, almost meditating effect.

You have been working on this project for 10 years, have the project changed over the years?

Yes, it started as a research and development project to develop a new cinematographic language. The first years I screened the individual portraits from DEEP LOOK on diverse platforms. Since 2016 developed it further into the film suitable for cinema theaters.

You also have been to a lot of places while producing the film, which destinations feature in the movie?

The people I portrayed are from several European countries, India, South Africa, the US, Peru, Uruguay, Turkey and Kenya.

We see the trailer and already realize that the film brings an unique aesthetic. Where do you bring that from?

I use the slowmotion technique as the main visual language. By dramatically slowing down the portraits it shows us more of the ordinary people, while also heightening our sense of time’s fleeting nature. Watching this extremely slow-paced imagery also slows own internal sense of time.

So, the film is as an answer to the agitation of our everyday life. Contrary to many films that play along with our desires and fears, DEEP LOOK appeals to our better angels, giving us energy and inspiration.

Which message do you wish the movie translates to its viewers?

The older we get, the faster time seems to fly. Time proves to be very transient. We live our lives only once, some people we see only once. So let us take a better look at people, to look deep into them.

The movie is coming out on April 5th, where can people watch it?

Arthouse Het Ketelhuis, Amsterdam, and thereafter the arthouses in another cities. At the moment, we don’t know yet which cities and when.