Every Picture Tells a Story - De Uitdaging - een ode aan de anarchie
Short documentary,
2003,
15 min.
De Uitdaging is a sunny tribute - and at the same time a farewell- to the raw, anarchist life on the beach of Hoek van Holland. Jan de Graaf, a freebooter in heart and soul, used to be the owner of beach pavilion De Uitdaging and had an illegal outdoor café where he served his self-caught fish. This went fine for years, until the town council developed new, ambitious plans. The pavilion was suddenly vacated because of the illegal decks. This hurt, but they can never prohibit Jan to keep on fishing. He has rented a container close to the beach now, where he and his son Martin select and clean the freshly caught fish for the fish auction. Meanwhile, the beach remains the beach: in summer crowded and noisy, full of sunbathing mothers with children, couples in love and tough guys from Rotterdam. When evening falls, the people disappear and only the sounds of the beach itself remain: the wind, the sea and a single seagull.
