On Saturday 29 March 2025, at 5:15pm, Movies that Matter in The Hague will be showing the movie BLOODLINES.
The movie got off to a great start at Film by the Sea in Flushing in September. Since then, the movie has played several times at Cinema Middelburg. Furthermore, it was broadcast twice on Surinamese television (ABC TV and Apinti TV). The reactions were very good. People are touched by the movie. Even people who say they don’t really have much to do with the subject have been made to think about it. That, of course, is very nice to hear.
The Slavery Museum and the Zeeuws Kenniscentrum Slavernij (Zeeland Knowledge Centre on Slavery) (both under construction) are interested in BLOODLINES and the series DE NAZATEN. An English translation and subtitles of the movie have already been realised.
Quote from moviesthatmatter.nl:
How do you deal with a lurid family history? For a long time, this question was expertly tucked away by both descendants of enslaved people and descendants of slave owners. But in Bloodlines, the silence is broken. In a layered and personal documentary portrait, six families explore how the traces of slavery are still visible – in archives, in family stories and in today’s inequalities.
In Zeeland, several families delve into their ancestors’ past, using the NiNsee archive and other historical sources. Whereas descendants of slave owners often find detailed family trees and possession documents, descendants of enslaved people encounter a painful reality: their ancestors are often listed only as numbers, without names or personal histories. This lack is perceived as a missing part of their identity.
Bloodlines shows how differently families deal with the legacy of slavery. Some descendants of slave owners visibly struggle with the responsibility that their family history entails; apologising does not seem to come naturally to everyone. Meanwhile, descendants of enslaved people recount how the slavery past still permeates their lives, not as a closed chapter, but as a reality visible in economic inequality, racism and an ongoing search for recognition.
The movie ends with a series of encounters between the different families – sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately frank and disarming. Bloodlines is an important contribution to the dialogue about our colonial past and shows that the conversation about slavery is not only an issue for institutions like NiNsee or Black Archives, but also needs to be held within white communities. A powerful and urgent film about the impact of history, and the question of how we can build a fairer future together.
A movie by Fifi Visser and André van der Hout.
This movie was made possible in part thanks to a financial contribution from the Hurgronje Family Fund.
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